Burnet's history of my own time

THE HISTORY

OF

MY OWN TIME

VOL. I.

Bonfcon

HENRY FROWDE, M.A.

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE

AMEN CORNER, E.G.

THE MACMILLAN CO., 66 FIFTH AVENUE

BUT* at, Gilbe^T, Dp.

BURNET'S)
HISTORY OF MY OWN TIME

A NEW EDITION BASED ON THAT OF M. J. ROUTH, D.D.

PART I
THE REIGN OF

CHARLES THE SECOND

EDITED BY

OSMUND AIRY, M.A.

IN TWO VOLUMES: VOL. I

OXFORD

AT THE CLARENDON PRESS

ji.pccc.xcvii

'

w

fat

C.i.

Ojtforb

PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON PRESS

BY HORACE HART, M.A.
PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY

PREFACE

IN the preparation of a new Edition of Burnet's History
several points have especially demanded attention. Errors,
positive or probable, required correction or suggested
emendation, and omissions supplement ; many statements
invited illustration ; it was desirable to indicate as far
as possible the probable sources of Burnet's information
upon matters which did not come under his personal
observation ; the notes of the earlier editions obviously
needed revision. Finally it was necessary to provide a
trustworthy text.

Probably no historian of Burnet's rank and importance
has ever been so vigorously or continuously challenged
on the ground of prejudice and inaccuracy.^/ The task
of meeting this challenge in any satisfactory manner is
one which cannot be undertaken in a Preface, unless it
is to extend to a wearisome length. But I do not hesitate
to say briefly that, when it is remembered that Burnet
was the first to exhibit on a large scale the picture of
his time — though Clarendon's Life and Continuation were
composed earlier — and that his narrative was drawn up
almost without the aid of documentary evidence ; and
when it is further borne in mind that he himself played an
active part in that time, that his temper was impulsive, and
that the passions aroused in the varied drama which was

VI

Preface.

acted under his eyes were strong, it will be recognized
by any careful and competent investigator that his com-
parative freedom from grave error— certainly from wilful
misrepresentation— is remarkable. This observation is
not extended to the later portion of his work, respecting
which I do not feel qualified to speak ; but I am satisfied
that as regards the age of Charles II, with which alone
I am concerned, he is, with but few exceptions, both as
to events and persons, conspicuously and honourably fair
in tone, even though frequently inaccurate in detail ;
especially— and here I speak with ^still more confidence-
is this the case when Scotland and Scotsmen are his
theme. It is true that he was an eager and credulous
listener; that he often, as indeed must be the case with
any one who writes of his own time, speaks from hearsay,
sometimes, as he tells us, from hearsay twice or thrice, so
to speak, removed ; that his information obviously takes
its colour at times from his own feeling ; that his character-
sketches are frequently overdrawn on the bad side, and that
they bear evidence of the repeated alteration mentioned by
Dartmouth in his last note to Burnet's Preface — generally
however by gentler strokes — according to the tone of his
mind at the moment of revision or according to some fresh
piece of gossip or information. There is little in all this
to detract from the value of Burnet's great work, or to
cause surprise. That a man should actively concern him-
self with public affairs in that feverish and immoral time,
and should be able to hold the scales evenly, however
much he might desire to do so. was absolutely impossible.
But that he did desire to do so, and that— through sheer
honesty of purpose — he has succeeded in a remarkable
degree, is the opinion which prolonged attention to the
subject has fixed upon my mind. Stories belonging to
one set of persons or events are indeed now and then

Preface. vii

transferred to others ; provisions of one Act of Parliament
are occasionally credited to another. There are ample
opportunities for corrective or illustrative criticism, but —
I again limit my remark to the reign of Charles II — for
destructive criticism very few ; while the tone of the
whole is vindicated by the results of all late research.

It is noticeable that the impression of consistency and
unity in Burnet's narrative is created in spite of the fact
that, except perhaps in the case of Scotland, that narrative
is neither continuous nor always correct as regards
chronological sequence. There is moreover no conscious
artistic arrangement, or sense of proportion, or grace ; the
language is often inelegant and even obscure; the literary
gait is often clumsy. The lacunae are numerous, and
the order of events is sometimes confused. The work is
a commentary upon history, a series of notes, some very
detailed, some very jejune, rather than a history itself.
The addition of marginal dates where necessary will, it is
hoped, remove the chronological difficulties. But it has
been found impossible, even where desirable, to bridge over
in any satisfactory manner the wide gaps in the narrative.

As regards the insertion of notes which are merely
illustrative rather than corrective or supplementary, the
chief source of embarrassment, almost of despair, has been
—not unnaturally, when the date of the last edition, 1833,
is remembered — the overwhelming wealth of material now
available. I trust that this part of the work has been kept
within due limits ; but even where I myself am sensible of
a barrenness of illustration I fear that the opposite impres-
sion may occasionally be left on the minds of others.

The treatment of the notes to Dr. Routh's edition was the
subject of much consideration. In the end it was deter-
mined to retain, as nearly as possible in the shape in
which they appear there, all which seemed to possess real

Vlll

Preface.

value ; such are the majority of the Onslow and Dart-
mouth notes, dealing mainly with matters of which their
authors were personally cognizant, and a considerable
number of those of Dr. Routh himself. Some of the
more pertinent of the contemptuous snarls of Swift have
also been preserved, though I have thought it unadvis-
able to encumber the pages with simple terms of abuse
which tend neither to edification nor to knowledge, such
as ' Dunce,' ' Puppy,' ' Scotch dog,' and the like. All these
earlier notes are indicated by the initial of the annotator ;
my own — with which a few of the others are incorporated—
have no initial. It has occasionally been found necessary
to insert a few explanatory words in the body of one of
the original notes ; these are indicated by square brackets.

It has been thought well to append two sets of
paginal references, one to the MS. in the Bodleian Library
(e. g. MS. 29), the other, in simple figures, to the folio
edition. The latter are necessary, since in all works pre-
viously written on the subject, and in all quotations, the
folio edition has been the common standard of reference.

One innovation, in addition to the substitution of the
modern form in the spelling of all proper names, has been
made in dealing with the text, which will, I hope, add to
the convenience of the reader ; I refer to the division into
Chapters. Wherever possible this has taken place at
obvious pauses in the narrative ; but the absence of any
intentional arrangement of the sort in Burnet's plan has
made the matter one of some difficulty.

As regards the Text itself the reader is referred to the
note by Mr. Macray upon his collation with the Bodleian
MS., which follows this Preface.

It remains for me to express my thanks to all those
who have aided me with information upon special
points. The task, undertaken — perhaps presumptuously

Preface. ix

— in the intervals of official work, has been heavy and
prolonged, and could scarcely have been performed thus
far without their active and generous help. That any
one who attempts to deal seriously with the history of
this portion of the seventeenth century should be under
deep obligations to Dr. S. R. Gardiner and Mr. C. H.
Firth will be taken as a matter of course. To myself their
assistance and encouragement have been lavish to a degree
which makes the only fitting words of gratitude too personal
for expression in this place.

To the Delegates of the Clarendon Press I desire to
offer my acknowledgements of their courtesy and of their

forbearance with delay.

OSMUND AIRY.
Jan. i, 1897.

THE collation of the original MS. (undoubtedly the MS. promised
by the original editors to be deposited in some public library, a promise
never fulfilled by them) which has been made for the present edition
has shown that but few noticeable variations from the text of
Dr. Routh's last edition were required. But it has also shown the
care with which Burnet, according to his own avowed intention in his
Preface, 'over and over again retouched' his work, often softening
some harsh expressions, or altering the form of sentences, or changing
single words, with a view to improvement of style. All changes in-
volving real alteration are now pointed out, but the mere substitution
of one conjunction or particle for another, and the omission or insertion
of small unimportant words, have been passed over.

The autograph of The History is contained in two folio volumes,
now shelf-marked as * Bodl. Add. D. 18, 19.' The text is written on
one side of the leaf, and the marginal notes on the opposite blank
page, where also Burnet places the numeration of the leaves : thus,
' page i ' is written on the blank page opposite the first page of the
MS. and so on consecutively. This is worth pointing out, in order to
obviate any possible difficulty in verification of a passage. The
volumes when purchased by the Library in 1835 for ,£210, were
entrusted to Dr. Routh for his use ; and a letter from him on returning
them to the Library, dated March 13, 1840, is inserted in the first
volume. Unfortunately the particulars of the purchase do not appear
to be now recoverable, and all that is known is that, as stated by
Dr. Routh (Hist, of James II, 1852, p. 474), they had belonged 'to
a family descended from the bishop.'

W. D. M.

PREFACE1
TO THE EDITION OF 1823

THE History of his Own Time by Bishop Burnet lays
claim to our regard as an original work containing a rela-
tion of public transactions, in which either the author or
his connexions were engaged. It will therefore never lose
its importance ; but still continue to furnish materials for
other historians, and to be read by those, who wish to
derive their knowledge of facts from the first sources of
information.

The accuracy indeed of the author's narrative has been
attacked with vehemence, and often, it must be confessed,
with success ; but not so often, as to overthrow the general
credit of his work. On the contrary, it has in many in-
stances been satisfactorily defended, and time has already
evinced the truth of certain accounts, which rested on this
single authority. It has also had the rare fortune of being
illustrated by the notes of three persons of high rank,
possessing in consequence of their situations means of
information open to few others. That their observations
on this history are now at length submitted to the public
eye, is owing to the following fortunate incident.

i. A resolution having been taken by the Delegates of
the Clarendon Press to reprint the work, the present Lord

1 Revised in 1833.

Preface to the Edition of 182). XL

Bishop of Oxford 3 expressed his readiness to communicate
to them a copy of it, in which his lordship had transcribed
the marginal notes written by his ancestor the first Earl of
Dartmouth. The offer was gratefully accepted, and the
notes ordered to be printed with the text.

Afterwards, on an application to the Earl of Onslow,
made through the late James Boswell, Esq., of the Inner
Temple, his lordship was pleased to confide to the Delegates
Speaker Onslow's copy of Burnet's History ; in which are
contained the Speaker's observations on this work, written
in his own hand. Besides these remarks, there appear in
the Onslow copy, in consequence of the permission of the
second Earl of Hardwicke, not only the notes written by
this nobleman on the second folio volume, but also the
numerous passages, which were omitted in the first volume
by the original editors. The notes likewise of Dean Swift
are there transcribed, taken from his own copy of the
history, which had come into the possession of the first
Marquis of Lansdowne2. We shall now lay before the
reader, for his greater satisfaction, a note prefixed to the
Onslow copy by George, late Earl of Onslow, the son of
the Speaker.

'The notes in these two volumes marked H. were the
notes in the present Earl of Hardwicke's copy of this work
written by himself, and which he permitted me to copy
into this. The earl is the son and heir of that great man
the chancellor 3. The others in the same handwriting
I had also from him, and they are what are left out in the

1 [Edward Legge, seventh son of stated by us [ed. 1823 : Preface, vii]

William, second Earl of Dartmouth ; to have been burnt, contained only

died 1827.] Since the publication a transcript of Swift's autograph,

of the former edition we have been R. This note was added in 1833.

indulged by the present lord marquis " Better known as Lord Shel-

with the use of this copy, and been burne.

enabled by it signally to correct some 3 Philip Yorke, first Earl of Hard-

of these notes. The copy formerly wicke ; died 1764.

xii Preface to the

printed history, but are in the manuscript. All the rest of
the notes are my father's own. Geo. Onslow, 1775. There
are many errors of the copyist. The notes in red ink are
by Dean Swift, and are copied (from an edition of this work
in the Marquiss of Lansdown's library, in the margin of
which they are written in the dean's own hand) by his lord-
ship's order for myself. O. 1788.'

With respect to the notes written by the Earl of Dart-
mouth, it appears from Sir John Dairy mple's Memoirs of
Great Britain and Ireland, and from Mr. Rose's Observa-
tions on Fox's History of the early part of the reign of
James II, that both these writers had been favoured with
the sight as well of these notes, as of a collection of letters
which were sent by King James, when Duke of York, and
residing in Scotland, to the first Lord of Dartmouth, the
earl's father, and from which the earl has frequently inserted
extracts 1. Seven or eight only of the notes have been
communicated to the public by the above-mentioned
authors, and are pointed out as they occur in the following
pages. All of them are now printed, with the exception
of three, which contained reflections on the private character
of as many individuals irrelevant to their public conduct.
They have been omitted, with the approbation of the
descendants of the noble writer2.

As the Earl of Dartmouth has often treated his author
with great severity, it should be remarked, that he was of
a party in the state opposed to that which Bishop Burnet
uniformly espoused. He appears also to have entertained
a great personal dislike to the bishop. At the same time
this nobleman, who was secretary of state, and afterwards

1 See the Dartmouth Papers, several places in consequence of

H. M. C. Rep. xi. App. Part v. a collation of them with the original

3 In this second edition of Burnet's copy preserved at Sandwell, the seat

work with nqtes, those by Lord of the Dartmouth family. R.
Dartmouth have been corrected in

Edition of 1823. xiii

Lord Privy Seal in the latter end of Queen Anne's reign,
never embraced, as may be collected from his notes, the
absurd doctrine of non-resistance to government in all
supposable cases ; but was, what some have called, a
moderate Tory ; and like most of the leading Tories in the
reign of the queen, was attached to the Hanover succes-
sion. The wiser members of this party held, that the right
of the people to govern depends on the different laws and
constitutions of different countries ; but that their right to
be well governed is indefeasible To which should be added,
that the tyranny of the many may as justly be resisted as
the misgovernment of the few, or of the individual. The
following character of his lordship has been transmitted to
us by Swift, whilst eulogizing the chiefs of Queen Anne's
last ministry, in the twenty-sixth number of the Examiner,
* My Lord Dartmouth,' he says, ' is a man of letters, full of
good sense, good nature, and honour, of strict virtue and
regularity in his life ; but labours under one great defect,
that he treats his clerks with more civility and good
manners, than others in his station have done the queen.'
See also Macky's Characters^ p. 89. His lordship's notes
on this work of Burnet abound in curious and well told
anecdotes.

The observations of Speaker Onslow and the Earl of
Hardwicke have likewise been hitherto unpublished, except
twenty of the former, printed in the twenty-seventh volume
of the European Magazine. But more than half of Swift's
short and cursory remarks have been already given to the
public in that and the two following volumes of the same
work by the person who communicated the others, yet
often altered in the expression1. They are shrewd, caustic,

1 The notes by Swift which appear Barrett's Essay on the Earlier Part of
in the Magazine were afterwards the Life of Swift. R.
affixed, in the year 1808, to Dr.

xiv Preface to the

and apposite, but not written with the requisite decorum ;
of six notes omitted by us, three are worded in so light
a way, that even modesty forbad their admission. The
Speaker's notes, addressed more particularly to his son,
contain many incidental discussions on political subjects,
and are sensible and instructive. Those of the Earl of
Hardwicke are so candid and judicious, that one cannot
but wish them to have been more numerous. Earl Spencer,
we are eager to acknowledge, condescendingly and most
obligingly endeavoured to procure the copy of Burnet's
History for our use, in the margin of which the notes were
originally written by Lord Hardwicke, it being desirable
that some doubtful passages of the transcript in the Onslow
copy should have been compared with it ; but unfortunately
the book could nowhere be found.

The Earl of Dartmouth and Dean Swift, who although
younger than Bishop Burnet, may be considered as his
contemporaries, were, as we have already observed in the
case of the Lord Dartmouth, opposed to him in politics :
but Arthur Onslow, Speaker in rive successive parliaments
in the reign of George II, enjoyed the confidence of the
Whigs, and with it a high reputation for integrity and
moderation. The remaining annotator, Lord Hardwicke,
son of the Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, and one of the
authors of those elegant compositions, the Athenian Letters,
always adhered to the same party. Lord Dartmouth uses
strong, and Swift much ill language, on Burnet's supposed
want of veracity ; and the excellent Latin verses of Dean
Moss on the same subject are now, we understand, in print.
Yet the bishop's friends need not be apprehensive of a
verdict of wilful falsehood against him in consequence of
the corrections of his narrative in the subsequent annota-
tions. Lord Dartmouth indeed, a man of honour, asserts
that this author has published many things which he knew

Edition of 1823. xv

to be untrue. See his note at the beginning of vol. iv.
His lordship, it must be allowed, had better opportunities
than we have for determining what Burnet knew ; but, as
he has adduced little or nothing in support of this charge,
we may be permitted to think, that strong prejudice, not
wilful falsehood, occasioned the bishop's erroneous state-
ments. It ought to be recollected in his favour, that he
never professed a belief, either in the discoveries of Gates,
or in the alleged murder of the Earl of Essex, although
articles of his party's creed. And notwithstanding the idle
stories told by him, on the authority of others, concerning
the birth of the Prince of Wales, he nowhere, in the
present work at least, explicitly avows an opinion of his
illegitimacy. Nor, although an active and zealous opposer
of King James's measures, does he appear to have been
concerned in the other infamous falsehood imposed at the
same time on the credulity of the nation ; the intended
massacre of the Protestants in this country by the Irish
soldiery. There is a story indeed, which used to be told
on the authority of the Dowager Countess of Nottingham,
that Burnet, in a conversation with her lord, accused him
of having professed different sentiments in the House of
Peers on some subject from what he then did ; and on
Lord Nottingham's denying that he had so expressed him-
self, the bishop, as it was stated, rejoined, if his lordship
had not, he ought to have done so: and that, notwith-
standing this in Burnet's History of his Own Time,
Lord Nottingham is represented to have said that which
he denied he had said. All this may be true, and yet the
bishop might not believe himself to have been mistaken.
It must however be confessed, that where either party-zeal
or personal resentment was concerned, this author too
frequently appears to have been no patient investigator of
the truth, but to have written under the influence of those

xvi Preface to the

feelings, even whilst he was delineating the characters of
some of the most virtuous persons of the age in which he
lived. Amongst these are the Archbishops Sheldon and
Sancroft, of whom he frequently speaks with unpardonable
severity. He has also directed much indiscriminate censure
against public bodies of men. In fact it appears by the
preface to his work, that he himself suspected he had
treated the clergy in particular with excessive harshness,
irritated, he says, ' perhaps too much against them, in
consequence of the peevishness, ill-nature, and ambition of
many of them.' Nay, from some particulars, which will
hereafter be mentioned, it may be collected, that the author
actually omitted many passages of his history still more
highly reflecting on his brethren.

That he was by no means acceptable to those prelates,
who governed the Church of England in the reign of
Charles II, seems extremely probable, when we consider
that, according to his own account, he was an active
opponent and open censurer of the bishops in Scotland,
and a great meddler in English politics. Besides this, he
professed to regard episcopacy itself as not necessary,
although a preferable form of church government ; and,
however averse from republicanism, appears to have
approved of the settlement made by the Scottish Cove-
nanters in 1641 as the best system of civil polity for
Scotland. See vol. i. pp. 396, 397, folio edit. The author
also, during the reigns of William and Anne, was on very
ill terms with the majority of the English clergy, whom he
often accuses of inactivity, faction, and ambition. It may
be urged on the other hand, in favour of his impartiality,
that he does by no means spare the characters of those on
his own side in politics ; so little indeed, that for the credit
of human nature we would hope, that he knew less of men
and of business than he himself supposed.

Edition of 182). xvii

But whether his censures were just or unjust, Burnet
himself, as it must be acknowledged even by his enemies,
was an active and meritorious bishop, and, to the extent of
his opportunities, a rewarder of merit in others. He was
orthodox in points of faith, possessed superior talents, as
well as very considerable learning ; was an instructive and
entertaining writer, in a style negligent indeed and in-
elegant, but almost always perspicuous ; generous, open-
hearted, and, in his actions, a good-natured man ; and
although busy and intrusive, at least as honest as the
generality of partisans. It is true, that his conduct to
the Duke of Lauderdale after the breach between them was,
even in his own apprehension of it, objectionable ; and he
forfeited by it the favour of the royal brothers, Charles and
James ; who had before this time paid particular attention
to him. His spleen and resentment against both these
princes are apparent in every part of this history ; except
that his final portrait of the latter is less darkly shaded,
than the harsh and hideous one which he has drawn of the
former. It may be here observed, in contradiction to the
report of Burnet and of several other writers, respecting
the early reconciliation of Charles to the Church of Rome,
that this event, as it appears from authentic accounts of the
king's last moments, did not take place till a short time
before his death.

2. Thus much concerning the notes on this work ; and
the accusation of wilful and deliberate falsehood brought
against its author by the Lord Dartmouth and others.
We proceed to give an account of the numerous passages
omitted in the first folio volume by the original editors, and
now restored to their proper places.

It is known to the readers of English history, that the
editors of this posthumous work, on the publication of
the first volume in 1724, promised to deposit the copy from

VOL. I. b

xviii Preface to the

which it was printed in some public library ; and they are
apprised, that in the beginning of the second volume,
printed in 1734, there appears the following declaration
with the signature of the bishop's youngest son, who was
afterwards Sir Thomas Burnet, and a judge. 'The original
manuscript of both volumes of this history will be deposited
in the Cotton library by T. Burnett.' The advertisement
in the former volume, which was the only one prefixed by
the editors to the work, is conceived in these terms. * The
editors of the following history intend, for the satisfaction
of the public, to deposite the copy from which it is printed
(corrected and interlined in many places with the author's
own hand) in some public library, as soon as the second
volume shall be published.'

Suspicions had very early arisen, nay, positive testimony
had been adduced, that many passages of the original work
were omitted by the editors in both the volumes (see note
in vol. iv. p. 566) ; when at length, in the year 1795, the
same person, who, according to our preceding statement,
inserted the greater part of Swift's and a few of Speaker
Onslow's notes, in the twenty-seventh volume of the
European Magazine^ communicated together with them
twelve passages of the text of Burnet, which, amongst
numerous others, had been omitted by the editors of the
first volume. They were, in all probability, published by
him from either the Onslow or the Hardwicke copy of
Burnet. He mentions the Hardwicke notes, although he
has extracted none of them. It has been already stated,
that the Hardwicke copy is missing, without hope it should
seem of its recovery, and into this copy the Onslow notes
had been transcribed, as those by the Earl of Hardwicke
had been into the Onslow copy. Now apart from actual
testimony, that the omissions were not confined to the
first volume, it appeared extremely probable to us, that in

Edition of 1823.

XIX

proportion as the history drew nearer to their own times,
the caution which dictated these omissions to the editors
would acquire additional motives, and that as many, if not
more, instances of suppression would be found to occur in
the second volume.

We had therefore recourse to that noble repository of
literature and science, the British Museum, of which the
Cotton Library, as is generally known, forms a constituent
part. Henry Ellis, Esq., one of the librarians of that
institution, very obligingly complied with our request to
make the requisite search for this MS. and he subsequently
reported, that, after the most accurate examination, it did
not appear that it had ever been deposited in the library.
He added, that 'several collections of folio papers, written
in various hands, and at different times, contained an im-
perfect copy of Bishop Burnet's History of his Own Times,
with many variations from the printed editions. That
some memorandums on a single sheet at the beginning of
this book, dated July 1699, are probably in the bishop's
hand, as are also many corrections in the history. Finally,
that Dr. Gififord has written several useful remarks in the
volume ; among which is one, that "from many particulars
it appears, that the printed editions are not taken from
these loose papers : yet that though there is great variety
of expression, the substance is generally the same." ' This
is the account with which we were favoured by Mr. Ellis.
It should be further observed, that the well-known fire, by
which the Cotton Library suffered considerable injury,
happened in 1731, three years before the promise was
publicly given of depositing the original MS. in that
library.

These circumstances considered, it is probable, that the
same reasons which induced the editor or editors to omit
certain passages in both volumes of the work, finally

XX

Preface to the

determined them, although pointedly expostulated with on
the subject, to relinquish their purpose of placing the
original MS. in an accessible library. It deserves notice,
that in page 8 of the second letter addressed by Mr. Beach
to Thomas Burnet, Esq., the writer asserts, that he had in
his own possession an authentic and complete collection of
the castrations. See Nichols's Literary Anecdotes •, vol. i.
p. 285. It is added by Beach, as we have been informed
by a gentleman who inspected this second letter to the
younger Burnet, as well as Sinclair's Remarks on the first
letter, that these passages were also in the hands of several
persons of distinction l. After all, we are induced by our
recollection of the restored passages to think, that although
they were unjustifiably omitted, because against the author's
express injunctions in his last will, yet that it was not done
by the editors through party considerations, but from a
desire of abating the displeasure certain to be conceived
against their father, by the friends or relations of those who
suffered by the severity of his censure. The editors appear
to have consulted their own feelings, in the omission of
several traits in the character given by him of his uncle
Warriston.

But it must not be omitted, that previously to the first
publication of this work in 1724, some extracts from the
former part of it, confessed to have been surreptitiously
obtained during the author's life, were actually printed ;
none of which appear either in the edited work, or amongst
the suppressed, and now restored passages of the first

1 In Beach's first Letter, as we
have found since the first publication
of this Preface, are inserted between
twenty and thirty of the omitted
passages, all of them the same as
those in the Onslow copy of Burnet,
and all likewise confined to the first

volume in folio, although the Letter
was published in the year 1736 after
the appearance of the second volume.
The same is the case with Bowyers
copy of the omitted passages, now in
the Bodleian Library. R.

Edition of 1823.

XXI

volume1. In a tract found in the British Museum by a
gentleman, who has done much for the literary history of
this country, Dr. Philip Bliss, Fellow of St. John's College,
Oxford, four passages are brought forward by the author of
it, purporting to be extracts from Burnet's history. The
title of the pamphlet is, A specimen of the Bishop of Sarnms
Posthumous History of the Affairs of the Church and Stale
of Great Britain during his life. By Robert Elliot, M.A.,
3rd ed. London. 8vo, without date2. The publisher in his
Preface says that he received the contents, consisting of
extracts from Burnet's history, and copious remarks upon
them, from Mr. Elliot, a deprived episcopal clergyman of
Scotland. The extracts are asserted to have been privately
made by Elliot, whilst employed together with others in
transcribing a manuscript of the work lent by the author
to Lord W. P. (perhaps Lord William Paulett). In
support of the credibility of the account, it may be
observed, that Lord Dartmouth, in a note at page 6, vol. i,
mentions an offer made to himself by the author, of in-
specting his history; a favour, his lordship adds, which the
bishop had conferred on several others. Of these four
extracts, the first is a relation of the murder of Archbishop
Sharp, and although it agrees in substance with that in the
edited copy, yet is much altered in point of expression.
The three others contain very severe and acrimonious
reflections on the English clergy.

It is observable, that in the Preface by Dr. Hickes to
Three Treatises republished by him in 1 709 — some years
before the death of Bishop Burnet— a part of the fourth

1 Cockburn, Specimen of Remarks, that the early portion of the work

64, says that nine or ten years was written about or shortly after

before 1724 portions of the History the publication of Clarendon's first

were in various hands ; and that volume, 1702.

the Preface was written in 1705. 2 The first edition of this pamphlet

From infra, 53, it would appear appeared in the year 1715. R.

XX11

Preface to the

and last of these extracts is given in the very words pro-
duced by Elliot ; and that Hickes says, he had seen a short
specimen of the bishop's anecdot, perhaps communicated to
him by this clergyman 1.

Dr. Bliss is of opinion, in case these extracts are authentic,
that they were taken from a copy of Burnet's work in its
first state, and before he altered, revised, and softened it.
That they are genuine, many internal marks of authenticity
lead us to suppose ; over and above the circumstance, that,
when Elliot, after finishing his extracts, proceeds to set
down what he recollects of the substance of nine or ten
other passages of the work, all that he produces has a
perfect agreement with what was afterwards published as
the bishop's. It is proper to remark in this place, that no
additional charge of suppression or alteration can fairly be
brought against the editors of Burnet's history in conse-
quence of these extracts produced by Elliot, as they were
made during the author's life, whilst he had the power of
altering and revising his own work. On the other hand,
against any suggestion, that the passages restored by us to
the text had been in a similar way expunged or altered by
the author himself, may be adduced the express testimony
above referred to, that many things in the copy from which
his work was printed, were omitted by the editors in both
the volumes 2.

Before this account of the suppressed passages is entirely
concluded, we shall take notice, that amongst those which
are restored, there is one, in vol. i. p. 544, containing a

1 This part of the last extract
appears also in a tract entitled,
Speculum Sarisburianum, printed in
1714, the last year of the bishop's
life. It should seem too, that the
celebrated Leslie had previously in

one of his publications taken notice
of some of Elliot's extracts, shown
him perhaps in MS. R.

2 Compare Beach's Second Letter
to Thomas Burnet, Esq., p. 13. R.

Edition of 1823. xxiii

severe attack on the character of King Charles I, chiefly
founded on that Prince's letters to the first Duke of
Hamilton, and on Bishop Burnet's acquaintance with the
Hamilton papers, the basis of his Memoirs of the two
dukes of that family. In favour of the king it ought first
to be stated, that the series of letters addressed to him by
the marquis, afterwards duke, of Hamilton, appears to
have formed no part of that collection of papers, Burnet
having in his Memoirs inserted few or none of them.
Again, that this nobleman so conducted himself in those
unhappy times, that he was always suspected by the
Royalists of treachery and treason against his benefactor
and sovereign ; and was even charged upon oath ' with
having agents to raise vile reports to the dishonour of the
king and queen, and their whole court, as if it was a sink
of iniquity.' See, besides the histories of the times, two
tracts, one entitled Digitus Dei, p. 6, and the other the
Practices of the Hamiltons, p. 15, together with a note at
page 60 [ed. 1896] of this first volume of Burnet From
this source apparently originated a report unfavourable to
the character of the queen, whether true or untrue, which is
mentioned in a note by the Earl of Dartmouth, vol. i. p. 66.
Neither is any additional credit reflected on the Hamilton
papers themselves, in case they contained, according to the
assertion of some persons, the following incredible story.
That in the year 1640 the king sent a warrant to Sir William
Balfour, Lieutenant of the Tower of London, to execute
immediately the Earl of London for the crime of high
treason, although, as it is well known it had formerly been
pardoned in consequence of a general act of grace ; which
illegal warrant was to take effect without any previous
trial; and that Charles was diverted from insisting on
Balfour's obedience to the order, solely by the interference
of the Marquis of Hamilton. See the Conclusion of Birch's

XXIV

Preface to the

Inquiry into King Charles the First's Transactions with the
Earl of Glamorgan, Second Edition, where this tale is
brought forward against the king 1. Let the Duke of
Hamilton however be heard in his own defence, and at the
same time in behalf of his royal master. In his speech
before his execution, this nobleman has the following ex-
pressions. ' I take God to witness, that I have constantly
been a faithful subject and servant to his late majesty, in
spite of all malice and calumny. I have had the honour
since my childhood to attend and be near him, till now of
late, and during all that time I observed in him as eminent
virtues and as little vice, as in any man I ever knew.'
Burnet's Memoirs of the Dukes of Hamilton, p. 398.

3. Thus much concerning the restored passages. To
the notes of the Earls of Dartmouth and Hardwicke,
Speaker Onslow, and Dean Swift, several others have
been added, for the purpose of correction, and of fuller
illustration. They are drawn principally from the pro-
fessed answerers of Burnet, from the historians of particular

1 Since the former edition of this
Preface, it has been found, that the
above relation had previously ap-
peared in Oldmixon's History of the
Stuarts, and that Brodie, in his
History of the British Empire, vol. ii.
p. 516, professes his belief in its
authenticity, although he originally
thought it untrue ; grounding, he
says, his opinion, as Birch had done
before him, on Scott's Staggering
State of the Scotch Statesmen, which
was first published in the year 1754,
but written by one, as Brodie remarks,
employed by King Charles I and his
father. It appears, indeed, that the
author of this tract, a favourer of
the covenanters, had heard of and
credited the report ; but had it been
true, all England in those days would

have rung with it, as Sir William
Balfour, to whom the warrant is said
to have been sent, was afterwards
a distinguished commander in the
parliament army. Consult also a
work lately published, abounding
in curious investigation, D'Israeli's
Commentaries on the Life and Reign
of Charles the First, vol. iv, ch. xi,
p. 357-361. It is however possible,
that the Marquis of Hamilton might
himself add terror to allurement,
when he brought over the Earl of
Loudon to the king's interests. We
have just seen, with some surprise,
a learned and sagacious writer ex-
pressing very lately his opinion in
favour of the truth of this narra-
tion. R.

Edition of 1823. xxv

periods of our history, writers of memoirs and of scarce
tracts, and occasionally from manuscript authorities. They
were selected and appended to the text, whilst the press
was going on, in the course of the last year ; and will, it is
hoped, as well as the strictures on some doctrines and
opinions in the other annotations, appear to owe their
situation in the following pages to a zeal for truth, sincere,
at least, however mistaken. All these notes are interspersed
with the others, and included within a parenthesis *.

It is proper to apprise the reader, that Ralph's History
of the three first reigns contained in Bishop Burnet's work,
namely, those of Charles II, James II, and King William,
was not procured for consultation before some part of the
reign of James II was already printed. But this circum-
stance appeared afterwards to be of less consequence than
the perusal of the latter part of the same history caused us
to apprehend. This historian has obtained from Mr. Fox
the praise of impartiality; which he well deserves 2.

It should also be here acknowledged, that a statement
in Bishop Burnet's work at pp. 31, 32 of the first volume,
ought to have been corrected from the Earl of Cromarty's
Account of the Conspiracies of the Earls of Gowry, published
before Burnet's death in the year 1713. The bishop affirms,
that the last Earl of Gowry was descended through a
daughter of Lord Methuen, from Margaret, daughter of

1 The number of these notes has last mentioned prelate, but are now

been considerably increased in con- deposited in the Bodleian Library,

sequence of the perusal of additional Some notes also, illustrative of his-

authorities, many of them con- torical facts, have been selected from

temporary works lately brought to the vituperative remarks written by

light, and of the still inedited letters Cole the antiquary in a copy of

of the Archbishops Sharp, Burnett, Burnet s History preserved in the

and Boyle, addressed to Archbishop same library. R.

Sheldon. These letters were not 2 Some references to the former

long since in the possession of Sir part of Ralph's History have now

John English Dolben, baronet, a been added. R.
descendant from a brother of the

xxvi Preface to the

King Henry the Seventh, although this king's daughter
had in reality no issue, but what died in infancy, by her
third husband, Henry, Lord Methuen, whom our author
erroneously calls Francis Steward, father of a Lord
Methuen. Gowry's grandmother was daughter of Henry,
Lord Methuen, by his second wife, a daughter of the Earl
of Athol, married to him after Margaret the Queen Dowager
of Scotland's death. See the Earl of Cromarty's Account,
pp. 8-12. As in this case the Earl of Gowry had no well-
founded claim to the succession of the crown of England,
if King James of Scotland were removed out of the way,
he could scarcely be influenced by any such claim to
attempt the assassination of that prince, according to the
bishop's surmize, not sanctioned, as he himself owns, by
any other historian.

On the other hand a confirmation of our author's testi-
mony has lately occurred, and the question, so ably discussed
by sergeant Heywood in his Vindication of Fox's Historical
Work, as to the conduct of General Monck during the
pending trial of the Marquis of Argyle, has been finally set
at rest. It now appears, on the authority of Sir George
Mackenzie, one of the assigned defenders of the marquis,
that Monck, when 'advertised of the scantiness of the
probation/ did actually transmit to Scotland several official
letters formerly received by him from the marquis for the
purpose of procuring that nobleman's condemnation. See
vol. i. p. 225, and Sir George Mackenzie's Memoirs of the
Affairs of Scotland, just published [1821], p. 4.

In printing the text of Burnet, the first edition has been
followed, and the alterations of his style in those subsequent
have been neglected. It is true, that in the title-page of
the octavo edition printed in 1755, the whole work is said
to have been revised and corrected by the editor, the
bishop's son ; but allowing this, the original MS. was still

Edition of i82j. xxvii

further departed from, than even in the folio edition. The
few alterations which occur in the editor's Life of his father
have been adopted.

The Index to the text of Burnet has been improved by
Dr. Bliss, whose name we have already had occasion to
mention ; the other Index to the principal contents of the
notes was entirely prepared by that gentleman l.

The author finished his history of the reigns of Charles II
and James II about the beginning of the eighteenth century :
that of the reign of William, and of the former part of
Queen Anne's reign in 1710. The continuation of the
work to the conclusion of peace in 1713 was completed
by him in that year ; less than two years before his death.
The present year 1823 is nearly the hundredth since the
publication of the first volume in folio, comprising the two
first reigns above mentioned, together with a summary of
public affairs before the restoration. It appears to have
excited more interest than the second volume, which fol-
lowed in 1734, after an interval of ten years. But this is
by no means to be wondered at, if besides taking into
account the author's frequent relations in the subsequent
volume of military and foreign affairs, amusive indeed, but
brief and perfunctory, we consider the diminished influence
of the good or ill qualities of individuals on the public
events and transactions of this latter period.

The great influence which personal character had formerly
on events, together with other causes, occasions the reign
of Charles the First, in which the contest for political
power commenced, to form the most interesting period of
English history, whether we are disposed to triumph with
the conquering party, or to espouse and commiserate the
cause of high honour and suffering loyalty. The frequent

1 It has now been augmented on ac- Text Index is often incorrect, and in
count of the additional matter. R. The many respects is quite inadequate.

xxviii Preface to the

and remarkable changes of government during the inter-
regnum, as well as the singular and energetic character of
the protector Cromwell, secure the attention of every
reader. The disputes, which afterwards arose between an
unprincipled, but good-humoured monarch, regardless alike
of his own honour and the national interest, and a restless,
violent, and merciless faction, are subjects of deep concern,
on account of their melancholy results. At the same time,
the mind feels consolation in the virtues of Ormond,
Clarendon, and Southampton. And, notwithstanding the
enormities of courtiers and anticourtiers, we reflect with
pleasure on the freedom then first securely enjoyed, from
every species of arbitrary taxation, and from extrajudicial
imprisonment ; on the provision made for the meeting of
parliament once in three years at the least ; in a word, on
the possession of a constitution, which King William ad-
mired so much, that he professed himself afraid to improve
it. The gloom of the next reign, ruined as its prospects
were by folly and oppression, and finally closed by means
of intrigue, falsehood, and intimidation, is in part enlivened
by a view of the courageous and disinterested conduct of
Sancroft, Hough, Dundee, Craven, and several others.
Some of these persons, desirous of a parliamentary redress
of grievances, thought, that instead of the force put upon
the person of the king, an accommodation might and ought
to have been effected with him ; as he had a little before,
when threatened with the just and open hostility of his
subjects for his perversion of the law, and maintenance of
a standing army, made very important concessions. Yet
it may reasonably be doubted, whether a composition with
a prince of his disposition and feeble judgement, whatever
good qualities he was otherwfse possessed of, would eventu-
ally have been lasting, or even reducible to practice. It
was remarked, that the appeal made by him to his subjects

Edition of 1823. xxix

immediately after his retreat to another country, was
signed by a secretary of state employed contrary to the
intent at least of law.

Times had now passed, which were chequered with great
virtues and great vices : but the reigns of William and
Anne exhibit to the reader one uniform scene of venality
and corruption ; and the mind, instead of being interested,
is disgusted with the contests of two parties for the govern-
ment of the country, assuming, as it best suited their selfish
purposes, each other's principles. The long contemplated
change in the executive government was at length effected ;
its power being virtually transferred to combinations of
persons possessed of great influence in parliamentary
elections, and in parliament itself. Hence what has been
called the practice of the constitution differed widely from
its theory ; and to this depression of the crown and of its
direct power, occasioned by the almost constant sitting
of parliament, were added maxims annihilating the will of
the single person, and, in conjunction with other causes,
finally subversive of all dutiful and affectionate attachment
to authority. These maxims, not recognized as constitu-
tional by Clarendon, Hale, or Locke, were advanced in
order to colour and justify the alteration. A wider and
more extensive field was now opened for the exertion of
talents, contributing to the advancement of the individual,
but often more hurtful than useful to the public. In these
reigns also, contrary to every principle of justice, were
laid the deep and broad foundations of a debt, which no
other than the political system then adopted could have
entailed on a nation. It ought still however to be re-
membered, that at, or soon after the revolution, a solemn
recognition was made of the liberties of Englishmen ; the
power of dispensing with the laws was abrogated in all
cases ; the judges ceased to be dismissed at the sole

XXX

Preface to the Edition of 1823.

pleasure of the crown ; a provision was made against the
long continuance of parliaments ; freedom of religious
worship was secured to the great body of protestant dis-
senters ; the important and necessary measure of a union
with Scotland was effected ; the liberty of the press
established ; trials for treason better regulated ; and a
more exact and impartial administration of justice generally
introduced in the kingdom. These blessings, and all our
constitutional rights, may God's providence, and a virtuous
and independent spirit, preserve. Let us venerate the
source of our freedom and happiness, the legal monarchy
.of England, supporting it, when outraged by venal and
prodigal factions, or threatened with subversion by reckless
and usurping demagogues.

M. J.R.

I 702

THE HISTORY OF MY OWN TIME

THE PREFACE.

I AM now beginning to review and write over again the
History of my own time, which I first undertook twenty
years ago 1, and have been continuing it from year to year
ever since : and a I see some reason to review it all. I had
while I was very young a greater knowledge of affairs than
is usual at that age ; for my father, who had been engaged
in great friendships with men of both sides, living then
retired from all business, as he took my education wholly
into his own hands, so he took a sort of pleasure to relate
to me the series of all public affairs. And as he was
a man so eminent for probity and true piety that I had
all reason to believe him, so I saw such an impartial sense
of things in him, that I had as little reason to doubt his
judgment as his sincerity. For though he adhered so
firmly to the king and his side that he was the singular
instance in Scotland of a man of some note, who, from
the beginning to the end of the war, never once owned or
submitted to the new forms of government set up all that

a now struck out.

1 This history he writ some time King William and Queen Mary he

before the year 1705, but how long, dates the continuation of his his~

he has not any where told ; only it tory on the first day of May, 1705.

appears it was then finished, because ORIGINAL EDITORS. See Preface

in the beginning of the reign of to the 1823 edition.

xxxii The Preface.

while, yet he did very freely complain of the errors of the
king's government, and of the bishops of Scotland. So
that upon this foundation I set out first to look into the
secret conduct of affairs among us.

I fell into great acquaintance and friendships with
several persons who either were or had been ministers of
state, from whom, when the secret of affairs was over,
I studied to know as many particulars as I could draw
from them 1. I saw a great deal more among the papers
of the dukes of Hamilton than was properly a part of their
Memoirs, or fit to be told at that time : for when a licence
was to be obtained, and a work was to be published fit for
that family to own, things foreign to their ministry, or
hurtful to any other families, were not to be intermixed
with the account I then gave of the late wars. And now
for above thirty years I have lived in such intimacy with
all who have had the chief conduct of affairs, and have
been so much trusted aand on so many important occasions
employed by them, that I have been able to penetrate far
into the true secrets of b counsels and designs.

This made me twenty years ago write down a relation
of all that I had known to that time : where I was in the
dark, I past over all, and only opened those transactions
that I had particular occasions to know. My chief design
in writing was to give a true view of men and of c counsels,
leaving public transactions d to gazettes and the public his-
torians of the times d. I writ with a design to make both
my self and my readers wiser and better, and to lay open
the good and the bad of all sides and parties, as clearly
and impartially as I my self understood it, concealing
nothing that I thought fit to be known, and representing
things in their natural colours without art or disguise, with-
out any regard to kindred or friends, to parties or interests.

a by them struck out. b councills. c councills.

d originally, to be found in Gazettes and the common historians.

1 See Cockburn, Specimen of Remarks, &c.} p. 66, for Burnet's industry
in acquiring information ; and infra, 358.

The Preface. xxxiii

For I do solemnly say this to the world, and make my
humble appeal upon it to the great God of truth, that I tell
the truth on all occasions, as fully and freely as I upon my
best inquiry have been able to find it out ; a where things
appear doubtful, I deliver them with the same incertainty
to the world.

Some may perhaps think, that, instead of favouring my
own profession, I have been more severe upon them than
was needful. But my zeal for the true interests of religion
and of the clergy made me more careful to undeceive good
and well meaning men of my own order and profession for
the future, and to deliver them from common prejudices
and mistaken notions, than to hide or excuse the faults of
those who will be perhaps gone off the stage before this
work appears on it. I have given the characters of men
very b impartially and copiously b; for nothing guides one's
judgment more truly in a c relation of matters of fact
than the knowing the tempers and principles of the chief
actors 1.

If I have dwelt too long on the affairs of Scotland, some
allowance is to be made to the affection all men bear to
their native country 2. I alter nothing of what I wrote in

)l and struck out. b originally, fully and freely. c copious struck out.

1 Bishop Burnet was a man of the when what he said would not have

most extensive knowledge I ever been thought so, delivered in a lower

met with ; had read and seen a great voice, and a calmer behaviour. His

deal, with a prodigious memory, and vast knowledge occasioned his fre-

a very indifferent judgment : he quent rambling from the point he

was extremely partial, and readily was speaking to, which ran him into

took every thing for granted that he discourses of so universal a nature,

heard to the prejudice of those he that there was no end to be expected

did not like : which made him pass but from a failure of his strength and

for a man of less truth than he really spirits, of both which he had a larger

was. I do not think he designedly share than most men ; which were

published any thing he believed to accompanied with a most invincible

be false. He had a boisterous vehe- assurance. DARTMOUTH.

ment manner of expressing himself, 2 Swift's criticism was to call Bur-

which often made him ridiculous, net's book the ' History of (Scotland

especially in the house of lords, in) my Own Time.' See Cockburn, 68.
VOL. I. C

xxxiv The Preface.

the first draught of this work, only I have left out a great
deal that was personal to my self, and to those I am
descended from : so that this is upon the matter the same
work, with very little change made in it.

I a look on the perfecting of this work, and the carrying
it on through the remaining part of my life, as the greatest
service I can do both to God and to the world ; and there-
Ms. 2. fore I set about it | with great care and caution. For
I reckon a lie in history to be as much a greater sin than
a lie in common discourse, as the one is like to be more
lasting and more generally known than the other. I find
that the long experience I have had of the baseness, the
malice, and the falsehood of mankind, has inclined me to
be apt to think generally the worst both of men and of
parties: and indeed the peevishness, b the ill nature, and
the ambition of many hot clergymen, has sharpened my
spirit perhaps too much against them: so I warn my
reader to take all that I say on these heads with some
grains of allowance, though I have watched over my self
and my pen so carefully that I hope there is no great
occasion for this apology.

I have shewed this ° history to several of my friends 1,
who were either very partial to me, or they esteemed that
this work (chiefly when it should be over and over again
retouched and polished2 by me3, which very probably

a reckon struck out. b the meanness struck out. c originally work.

1 He offered to shew it to me, 2 Rarely polished; I never read

which I avoided, knowing it was so ill a style. S. See Editor's Pre-

a favour he had granted to several face (ed. 1823). ' Perfect, requiring

others, and if any part of it had been no mending' is the verdict of C. J.

published before its time, he might Fox. The ' vain solemnity ' of

have thought it came from me : Burnet's Preface is commented upon

though he was so civil as to tell me in an anonymous Review of Burnet 's

I would be the last he should sus- History, 1724, p. 3.

pect ; and whenever I did read it, :! I do not know who his friends

I should find accounts both of per- were, or how partial they might be,

sons and things, that I did not expect but I believe generally people will

from him ; but truth, he said, must be of opinion that this is the worst

be followed by an historian, wher- of his performances ; in most others

ever it led him. D. that are of any value, the materials

The Preface. xxxv

I shall be doing as long as I live l) might prove of some
use to the world. I have on design avoided all laboured
periods or artificial strains, and have writ in as clear and
plain a style as was possible, choosing rather a copious
enlargement than a dark conciseness.

And now, O my God, the God of my life and of all my
mercies, I ofTer up this work to Thee, to whose honour it is
chiefly intended ; that thereby I may awaken the world
to just reflections on their own errors and follies, and call
on them to acknowledge thy providence, to adore it, and
ever to depend on it.

were ready furnished, and he had his intimate friend and near relation,

only the putting of them together ; told me, that after a debate in the

in this, which is entirely his own, he house of lords he usually went home,

has exposed his excessive partiality, and altered every body's character,

and great want of judgment. D. as they had pleased or displeased

1 Mr. Secretary Johnston, who was him that day. D.

THE HISTORY

OF

MY OWN TIME

VOL. I.

THE

HISTORY OF MY OWN TIME

BOOK I.

A summary recapitulation of the state of affairs in Scotland,
both in Church and State, from the beginning of the troubles
to the restoration of K. Charles the second, i66o\

CHAPTER I.

TO THE ACCESSION OF CHARLES I.

THE mischiefs of civil wars are so great and lasting, and CHAP. I.
the effects of ours branching a themselves out by many
accidents that were not thought on at first, much less in-
tended, into such mischievous consequences, [that] I have
thought it an enquiry that might be of great use both to
prince and people, to look carefully into the first beginnings
and occasions of them, to observe their progress, and the
errors of both hands, the provocations that were given, 6
and the jealousies that were raised by these, together with
the excesses into which both sides have run by turns. And
though the wars be over long ago, yet b since they have
left among us so many seeds b of lasting feuds and animosi-
ties, which upon every turn are apt to ferment and to break
out c anew, it will be an useful as well as a pleasant enquiry

B them struck out ; themselves interlined. b substituted for so many scars
still remain, which as they are the remembrances of ivhatis past, so they the seeds.
c of struck out.

1 The last part of this Book— in England, would appear from this
chapter v in the present arrange- heading to have been an after-
ment — which deals with Cromwell thought.

B 2

4 A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. I. to look back to the first original of them, and to observe

by what degrees and accidents they gathered strength, and

at last broke forth into such a flame.

The Reformation of Scotland was popular and parlia-
mentary: the crown was during that time either on the
head of a queen that was absent, or of a king that was an
infant. During his minority matters were carried on by
-the several regents, so as was most agreeable to the pre-
vailing humour of the nation. But when king James grew
1587. to be of age, he found two parties in the kingdom : the one
was of those who wished well to the interests of the queen
his mother, then a prisoner in England ; these were either
professed papists, or men believed to be indifferent as to
all religions : the rest were her inveterate enemies, zealous
for the Reformation, and fixed in a dependence on the
crown of England aand a jealousy of France a. When that
king saw that those who were most in his interests were
likewise jealous of his authority, b and apt to encroach upon
itb, he hearkened first to the insinuations of his mother's
party, who were always infusing in him a jealousy of these
his friends, and saying, that by ruining his mother and
setting him in her room while a year old, they had ruined
monarchy, and made the crown subject and precarious,
and had put him in a very unnatural posture of being
seised of his mother's crown while she was in exile and
a prisoner ; adding, that he was but a king in name, the
power being in the hands of those who were under the
management of the queen of England.

Their insinuations would have been of less force if the
House of Guise \ who were his cosin-germans, had not been
then engaged in great designs, of transferring the crown
of France from the House of Bourbon to themselves ; in
order to which it was necessary to embroil England, and
to draw the king of Scotland into their interests. So
under the pretence of keeping up the old alliances between

a interlined. b interlined.

1 His grandmother, Mary, the wife Duke of Guise, and of Charles, cardinal
of James V, was the sister of Francis, of Lorraine.

before the Restoration.

1579-

1 Esme Stuart, third son of John,
Sieur d'Aubigny. John was brother
to Matthew, fourth Earl of Lennox,
who was the husband of Margaret
Douglas, daughter of the Earl of
Angus and Margaret Tudor. Esme
was thus first cousin of Darnley,
James's father. He arrived in Scot-
land in 1579, and acted under the
direction of the Duke of Guise. Al-
though a Catholic, he was allowed
to pretend to be a Protestant, and
this he did successfully to his death,
actually subscribing the Confession
of Faith in August 1580, and March
15$ •£ . He was created Earl of Len-
nox in March 15!$; and, after the
death of Morton, of which he was
the author, Duke of Lennox. Driven
from Scotland in Dec. 1583, he died
in Paris in the following year. See
Spottiswoode (1851 ed.), 324, from
which it appears that James believed,
or wished it thought that he believed,
in Lennox's protestantism at his
death, and Bevill Higgons, Remarks
on Bishop Burnefs History, 315-

320. The danger of his influence
over James was fully recognized
by the English ministers. Hatfield
MSS., parts ii, iii, in the H. M. C.
Reports.

2 A mean expression, often made
use of by King James the First, though
little to the reputation of his integrity
or understanding, but suitable to the
pedantic education they had given
him in his youth ; which the Earl of
Marr told me was done designedly,
to make him contemptible both at
home and abroad : and that George
Buchanan said, he would take care
to make him the lively image of his
mother. D. A similar charge was
made regarding Mazarin and Louis
XIV, and regarding John de Witt
and William of Orange; and it
was doubtless no more true in this
case than in those. Dartmouth, in
his note above, imports into the
word ' Kingcraft ' a suggestion of
trickery, which it does not properly
imply ; cf. infra 9, note.

MS. 3.

France and Scotland, they sent creatures of their own to CHAP. I.
be ambassadors there ; and they also sent a graceful young
man 1, who, as he was the king's nearest kinsman by his
father, was of so agreeable a temper that he became his
favourite, and was made by him duke of Lennox. He was
known to be a papist, though he pretended he changed 7
his religion, and became in profession a protestant.

| The court of England discovered all these artifices of the
Guisians, who were then the most implacable enemies of
the Reformation, and were managing all that train of plots
against queen Elizabeth that in conclusion proved fatal to
the queen of Scots. And when the English ministers saw
the inclinations of the young king lay so strongly that way
that all their applications to gain him were ineffectual, they
infused such a jealousy of him into all their party in Scot-
land, that both nobility and clergy were much alarmed at it.

But king James learnt early that piece of kingcraft2,

6 A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. I. of disguising, or at least denying, every thing that was
observed in his behaviour that gave offence.

The main instance in which the French management
appeared was, that he could not be prevailed on to enter
into any treaty of marriage. It was not safe to talk of
marrying a papist ; and as long as the duke of Guise lived,
the king, though then three and twenty, and the only
person of his family, would hearken to no proposition for
marrying a protestant.

But when the duke of Guise was killed at Blois, and that
Henry the third was murdered soon after, so that Henry
the fourth came in his room, king James was no more in
a French management : so presently after he married a
daughter of Denmark, and ever after that he was wholly
managed by queen Elizabeth and her ministers 1. I have
seen many letters .among Walsingham's papers that dis-
cover the commerce between the House of Guise and him
[king James] ; but the most valuable of these is a long
paper of instructions to one sir Richard Wigmore 2, a great
man for hunting and for all such sports, to which king
James was out of measure addicted 3. The queen affronted
him publicly, upon which he pretended he could live no

1588.
1589.

Nov. 23,
1589

1 Not before 1601. Correspondence
of James VI with Sir R. Cecil (ed.
Bruce, CamdenSoc.),Introd. James's
wife was Anne, daughter of Frederick
II of Denmark. Upon the import-
ance of this marriage, see Ranke,
Hist. Engl. i. 367.

2 This is doubtless the paper of
instructions 'in his secret employ-
ment into Scotland upon the execu-
tion of the Queen of Scots, the . . .
of May, A.D. 1588.' Harley MSB.
290 ff. 248-256; Cotton MSB. Cali-
gula D. i. f. 1 60 ; Titus C. vii, f. 149.
Welwood had also seen the paper.
See his Memoirs (1700), 9, ' Sir F.
Walsingham gives him above ten
sheets of paper of instructions, all
writ with his own hand, which I have
read in the Cotton Library.' Wig-

more lived in close companionship
with James for nine or ten years
without raising any suspicion that
he was a spy. There are letters
from Wigmore to Cecil in the Hat-
field MSS. part iii, 434, 435, 460, and
in the Salisbury MSS., H. M. C.
Report, iii.

3 See many amusing instances of
this in the Hamilton MSS., H. M. C.
Report, xi, App. part vi ; especially
67. Welwood, 35, asserts that ' his
standish, his bottle, and his hunting,
were all he cared for.' There is
a long and brilliant character- sketch
of James in a letter from Fontenay,
an agent of Mary in James's court, to
Nau, her secretary. Hatfield MSS.
part iii. 47, August 15, 1584. Froude,
Hist. Engl. xi. 457 (sm. ed.).

before the Restoration. 7

longer in England, and therefore withdrew to Scotland. CHAP. I.
But all this was a contrivance of Walsingham's, who
thought him a fit person to get into that king's favour : so
that affront was designed to give him the more credit. He
was very particularly instructed in all the proper methods to
gain upon the king's confidence, and to observe and give
an account of all he saw in him : which he did very faith-
fully. By these instructions it appears that Walsingham
thought that king was either inclined to turn papist or to be
of no religion. And when the court of England saw that
they could not depend on him, they raised all possible
opposition to him in Scotland, infusing strong jealousies
into those who were enough inclined to receive them.

This is the great defect that runs through archbishop 8
Spotswood's history 1, where much of the rude opposition
that king met with, particularly from the assemblies of the
Kirk, is set forth ; but the true ground of all the jealousies
they were possessed with is suppressed by him. After his
marriage the king studied to remove these suspicions all
that was possible ; and he granted the Kirk all the laws
they desired, and got his temporal authority to be better
established than it was before : yet as the jealousies of his
fickleness in religion were never quite removed, so athe
party gave him a many new disgusts : this wrought in him
a most inveterate hatred of presbytery and of the power of
the Kirk ; and he, fearing an opposition in his succeeding
to the crown of England from the popish party, which,
though it had little strength in the House of Commons, yet
was very great in the House of Lords, and was very con-
siderable in all the northern parts, and among the body of
the people, employed several persons who were known to

a altered from, so they raised.

1 ' The History of the Church of Archbishop of St. Andrews and

Scotland, beginning the year of our Privy Councillor to King Charles the

Lord, 203, and continued to the end of First.' London, 1665. Spottiswoode

the reign of King James VI of ever died in 1639. The work has since

blessed memory, &c., written by that been republished by the Spottis-

grave and reverend prelate and wise woode Society, 1851, edited by Dr.

counsellor, John Spotswood, Lord Russell, Bishop of Glasgow.

8 A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. I. be papists, though they complied outwardly. The chief of
these were Elphinstone, secretary of state, whom he made
lord Balmerino, and Seaton, afterwards chancellor and
earl of Dimfermline ; by their means he studied to assure
the papists that he would connive at them. A letter was
also writ to the pope by him, giving him assurance of this,
which when it came to be published by Bellarmine, upon
the prosecution of the recusants after the discovery of the
gunpowder plot, Balmerino did affirm that he out of zeal to
the king's service got his hand to it, having put it in a the
bundle a of papers that were signed in course, without the
king's knowing any thing of it 1. Yet when that discovery
drew no other severity on the secretary, but the turning him
1609. out of office, and the passing a sentence condemning him
to die for it (which was presently pardoned, and he was
after a short confinement restored to his liberty), all men
believed that the king knew of the letter, and that the pre-
tended confession of the secretary was only collusion to lay
the jealousies of the king's favouring popery, which still hung
upon him, notwithstanding his writing on the Revelation,
and his affecting to enter on all occasions into controversy,
asserting in particular that the pope was antichrist.

bAs he took these methods to manage the popish party,

he was much more careful to secure to himself the body of

the English nation. Cecil, afterwards earl of Salisbury,

secretary to queen Elizabeth, entered into a particular con-

1601-1603. fidence with him : and this was managed by his ambassador

9 Bruce 2, a younger brother of a noble family in Scotland,

a altered from, a croud and a company. b But struck out.

1 Mr. S. R. Gardiner has convinced cousin of David II ; he was born

himself of the truth of Balmerino's about 1549. In 1601 he went with

statement, Hist, of Engl. i. 81 note, the Earl of Mar on an embassy to

ii. 32. See especially H. M. C. Elizabeth. He then became Cecil's

Rep. iii. 55. correspondent with James, 1602. In

a Edward Bruce, titular abbot of 1603 he was made Master of the Rolls

Kinloss, an eminent Scotch lawyer, and Baron Bruce of Kinloss ; and

second son of Sir Edward Bruce, diedini6n. Corresp.ofJamesVIwith

and grandson of Sir David Bruce Sir R. Cecil, Introd. I am not aware

of Clackmannan, was lineally de- of any evidence supporting Burnet's

scended from Robert de Bruce, statement regarding an ' engage-

before the Restoration. 9

who carried | the matter with such address and secrecy, CHAP. i.
that all the great men of England, without knowing of one ^T
another's doing it, and without the queen's suspecting any
thing concerning it, signed in writing an engagement to
assert and stand by the king of Scots right of succession.
This great service was rewarded by making him Master of
the Rolls, and a peer of Scotland : and as the king did
raise Cecil and his friends to the greatest posts and dig-
nities, so he a raised Bruce's family here in England l.

When that king came to the crown of England he dis- 1603.
covered his inveterate hatred to the Scottish Kirk on many
occasions, in which he gratified his resentment without
consulting his interests2. He ought to have put his utmost
strength to the finishing what he did but faintly begin for b
the union of both kingdoms, which was lost by his unreason-
able partiality in pretending that Scotland ought to be
considered in this union as the third part of the isle of Great
Britain, if not more 3 : so high a demand ruined the design.

a very much struck out. b substituted for, in order to.

merit.' See Salmon's Examination,
306. It should be remembered that
by an arrangement made at Berwick
on Julys, 1586, James received a pen-
sion of £4,000 a year, and there was a
tacit engagement that, so long as he
was loyal to England, his claims to
the succession would be recognized.
Froude, xii. 133.

1 Robert Cecil, great-grandson to
the first Earl of Salisbury, told me
that his ancestor inquiring into the
character of King James, Bruce's
answer was, ' Ken ye a John Ape ?
en I's have him, he'l bite you : en
you's have him, he'l bite me.' D.
Compare Ralph, i. 499, note [quoted
from Ferguson's ' Second Letter to a
person of honour,' which wras written
at the time of Charles I I's declaration
that he had not been married to
Monmouth's mother ; see Ferguson's
Robert Ferguson t he P 'latter, 51] where
Lord Burleigh's name instead of that

of his son the Earl of Salisbury is
brought forward on this occasion. R.

2 The Earl of Seafield told me that
King James frequently declared that
he never looked upon himself to be
more than King of Scotland in name,
till he came to be King of England ;
but now, he said, one kingdom
would help him to govern the other,
or he had studied kingcraft [cf.
supra 6, note] to very little purpose
from his cradle to that time. D. He
congratulated himself upon having
exchanged the 'wild and unruly
colt ' for a ' towardly riding horse/
Corresp. of James VI with Sir R.
Cecil, Introd. xlv. In Scotland he
was ' a king without state, without
honour, without order; where beard-
less boys (the Presbyterian ministers)
would brave me to the face.'

s Gardiner, Hist, of Engl. i. 176,
328. There is no evidence for the
statement in the text. The title of

io A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. I. But when that failed him, he should then have studied to
keep the affections of that nation firm to him : and certainly
_ his being secured of that kingdom might have been so
managed as to have prevented that disjointing which hap-
pened afterwards both in his own reign, and more tragically
in his son's. He thought to effect this by his profuse
bounty to many of the nobility of that kingdom, and to his
domestic servants : but as most of these settling in England
were of no further use to him in that design, so his setting
up episcopacy in Scotland, and his constant aversion to the
Kirk, how right soever it might be in itself, was a great error
in policy; for the poorer that kingdom was, it was both the
more easy to gain them, and the more dangerous to offend
them. So the terror which the affections of the Scotch nation
might have justly given the English was soon lost, by his
engaging his whole government to support that which was
then very contrary to the bent and genius of the nation.

But though he set up bishops, he had no revenues to give
them but what he was to purchase for them. a During his
minority, all the tithes and the church lands were vested in
the crown : but this was only in order to the granting them
away to the men that bore the chief sway1. It is true,
is8?- when he came of age, he, according to the law of Scotland,
past a general revocation of all that had been done in
his infancy : and by this he could have resumed all those
grants. He, and after him his son, succeeded in one part
of his design : for by Act of Parliament2 a court was erected
that was to examine the state of the tithes in every parish,
and to make a competent provision out of a third part to
10 those who served b the cure b ; which had been reserved in
the great alienation for the service of the church. This

& for struck out. b them interlined.

* King of Great Britain, France and ready inalienably in the hands of the

Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c.' nobles were annexed to the Crown,

was assumed by James by proclama- James gave them away lavishly,

tion on Oct. 20, 1604. Prothero, 2 Acts of Parliament of Scotland,

Select Statutes and Documents of iii. 24, 90, 303, 546. The last of

Elizabeth and James I, 393. these, June 5, 1592, is a ratification

1 In 1587 all church lands not a of the Act made in February, 1587.

before the Restoration.

ii

was carried at first to a proportion of about thirty pound CHAP. I.
a year, and was afterwards in his son's time raised to about
fifty pound a year ; which, considering the plenty, and
way of living in that country, is a very liberal provision,
and is equal in value to thrice that sum in the southern
parts of England. a In this he had both the clergy and the
body of the people on his side ; but he could not so easily
provide for the bishops. They were at first forced to hold
their former cures, with some small addition.

But as they assumed at their first setting out little more
authority than that of a constant president of the presbyters,
so they met with much rough opposition. The king intended
to carry on a conformity in matters of religion with England,
and he began to buy in from the grantees many of the
estates that belonged to the bishoprics. It was also
enacted that a form of prayer should be drawn for Scot-
land : and the king was authorized to appoint the habits in
which the divine offices were to be performed. Some of the
chief holydays were ordered to be observed ; the sacrament
was to be received kneeling, and to be given to the sick.
Confirmation was enacted ; as also the use of the cross in bap-
tism. These things l were first past b in General Assemblies,
which were composed of bishops and the deputies chosen
by the clergy, who sat all in one house: and in it they
reckoned the bishops only as single votes. Great opposition
was made to all these steps : and the whole force c of the
government was strained to carry elections to those meet-
ings, or to take off those who were chosen ; in which it was
thought that no sort of practice was omitted. It was pre-
tended that some were frighted, and others were corrupted.

The bishops themselves did their part very ill 2. They
generally grew haughty d : they neglected their functions, and

a but struck out. b substituted for enacted. c substituted for

business. d and disdainful, vain and luxurious struck out.

1 Articles of Perth, accepted by the 2 The use of the cross in baptism

Assembly, August 27, 1618; ratified was not enacted. See Gardiner, i.

by Parliament on Black Saturday, 222-236.
August 4, 1621.

12

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. I. were often at court, and a lost all esteem a with the people.
Some few that were stricter and more learned did lean so
grossly to popery, that the bheat and violence of the Reforma-
tion became the main subject of their sermons and discourses.
King James grew weary of this opposition, or was so appre-

MS. 5. hensive | of the ill effects that it might have, that, what

through sloth or fear, and what by reason of the great disorder

into which his ill conduct brought his affairs in England in

his latter years, he went no further in his designs on Scotland.

He had three children. His eldest, prince Henry, was

a prince of great hopes ; but so very little like his father,

11 that he was rather feared than loved by him. He was so

zealous a protestant, that, when his father was entertaining

1611. propositions of marrying him to popish princesses1, oncec
to the archduchess, and at another time to a daughter of
Savoy, he in a letter that he wrote to the king on the twenty-

1612. second of that October in which he died (the original of
which sir William Cook shewed me), desired that if his
father married him that way, it might be with the youngest
person of the two, of whose conversion he might have hope,
and that any liberty she might be allowed for her religion
might be in the privatest manner possible. Whether this
aversion to popery hastened his death or not, I cannot
tell. d Colonel Titus2 assured me that he had it from

a altered from they lost all sort of esteem.
c substituted for sometimes. d but struck out.

b unjust struck out.

1 Viz. the Infanta Anne and her
sister Maria: the daughter of the
Duke of Savoy ; the two daughters
of the Queen Regent of France;
and one of the sisters of the Grand
Duke of Tuscany. Gardiner, Hist, of
Engl. ii. 137, 153. Possibly the last
was the ' Archduchess ' of whom
Burnet speaks. The only person who
really bore that title in James's reign
was the Infanta Isabella, married to
the Archduke Charles Albert, in con-
junction with whom she ruled the
Netherlands. Cf. infra 83, note.

- There was really no mystery as

to his death ; he died of typhoid,
Nov. 6, 1612, in his nineteenth year.
See The Illness and Death of Henry
Prince of Wales — a historical case of
typhoid fever ; by Norman Moore,
M.D. ; reprinted from the St. Bar-
tholomew Hospital Reports, vol.
xvii. For his character, see Gardiner,
ii. 159, 347. The report of the doctors
who were present at the post-mortem
examination is in Birch's Life of Henry
Prince of Wales, 1 760, 359, and in Wei-
wood, Memoirs, App. 233. Welwood
was Physician to William III. Upon
Titus, see infra 76, note.

before the Restoration. 13

king Charles the first's own mouth, that he was well assured CHAP. I.
of it that he was poisoned by the earl of Somerset's means.
It is certain that from the time of the gunpowder plot king
James was so struck with the terror of that danger he was
then so near, that ever after he had no mind to provoke the
Jesuits ; for he saw what they were capable of.

And since I name that conspiracy which the papists
in our days have had the impudence to deny1, and
to pretend it was an artifice of Cecil's to engage some
desperate men into a plot, which he managed so that he
could discover it when he pleased, I will mention what
I my self saw, and had for some time in my possession.
Sir Everard Digby a suffered for a that conspiracy: he was 1605.
the father of the famous sir Kenelm Digby. bThe family
being ruined upon the death of sir Kenelm's son, cwhen
the executors were looking out for writings to make out the
title of the estates they were to sell 2, d and were directed
by an old servant to a cupboard that was very artificially
hid, in which some papers lay, that she had observed sir
Kenelm was oft reading, they, looking into it, found a velvet
bag, within which there were two other silk bags : (so care-
fully were those relics kept :) and there was within these
a collection of all the letters that sir Everard writ during
his imprisonment. In these he expresses great trouble,
because he heard some of their friends blamed their under-
taking: he highly magnifies it ; and says, if he had many lives,
he would willingly have sacrificed them all in carrying it on.
e In one paper he says, they had taken that care that there

ft suffered for (altered). b and when struck out. c substituted

for while. d they struck out. e and struck out.

1 See what Lord Stafford says of They were found 'by us. Sir Rice
this plot, in his trial. O. Cobbett's Rudd, Bart., and William Wogan of
State Trials, vol. vii. 1357. Gray's Inn, about the month of

2 At Gothurst, near Newport September, 1675, at the house of
Pagnell, in Bucks. Coles MS. note. Charles Cornwallis, Esq., executor
Everard Digby's Letters and Poems of Sir Kenelm Digby, son and heir
were first published in the appendix of the said Sir Everard, tied up in
to The Gunpowder Treason, reprinted two silk bags ; ' id. 239. See also
in 1679 with a Preface by Thomas Jardine, Narrative of the Gunpowder
[Barlow~] Lord Bishop of Lincoln. Plot, 153.

14 A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. I. were not above two or three worth saving to whom they

had not given notice to keep out of the way : and in none

of those papers does he express any sort of remorse for that
which he had been engaged in, and for which he suffered.

Upon the discovery of that plot, there was a general
prosecution of all papists set on foot : but king James was
very uneasy at it : which was much increased by what sir
12 Dudley Carleton told him upon his return from Spain,
where he had been ambassador1 ; which I had from the lord
Holies, who said to me that Carleton told it to himself, and
was much troubled when he saw it had an effect contrary
to what he had intended. When he came home, he found
the king at Theobald's hunting in a very careless and
unguarded manner : and upon that, a in order to the put-
ting him a on a more careful looking to himself, he told the
king he must either give over that way of hunting, or stop
another hunting that he was engaged in, which was priest
hunting : for he had intelligence in Spain that the priests
were comforting themselves with this, that if he went on

a altered from to put him.

1 Carleton was born 1573 and died
1632. There is no trace of his having
been employed officially in Spain.
In June, 1602, he accompanied Sir
T. Parry, ambassador to France, as
secretary; in 1603 he became private
secretary to Henry, Earl of North-
umberland, and in 1605 went with
Lord Norris on a tour in Spain. In
May, 1610, he was named ambas-
sador to Brussels, but succeeded Sir
H. Wootton instead at Venice be-
tween August and December ; Win-
wood, Memorials of State Affairs
(1725), in. 2 13, 236. He was knighted
in Sept. 1610, returned in 1615 after
being instrumental in concluding the
treaty of Asti, and in Jan. i6i| suc-
ceeded Winwood at the Hague,
remaining there for five years ; Eglin-
ton MSS., H. M. C. Rep. x. 520-606.
In 1625 he was again at the Hague
with Buckingham. Upon his return

he was made Vice-Chamberlain, and
was placed on the Privy Council.
He then went on a joint embassy
with the Earl of Holland to France,
returning March 162^. In May he
was created Lord Carleton of Imber-
court. He again went to the Hague,
remaining there for two years. On
July 25, 1628, he became Viscount
Dorchester, and, in December, Chief
Secretary of State. Many of his
Letters during the Venice embassy
are in Winwood, iii. Those during
his first embassy at the Hague were
published in 1755 by the second Earl
of Hardwicke ; and those relating to
the 1627 embassy by Sir T. Phillipps
in 1841. See also Cabala, siveScrinia
Sacra (1654); Birch, Court and Times
of James I and Charles I ; Clarendon,
Rebellion (ed. Macray, 1888), i. 141,
143 ; Carleton's Negotiations (ed.
Sawyer, 1725).

before the Restoration. 15

against them they would soon get rid of him. Queen CHAP. I.
Elizabeth was a woman of form, and was always so well
attended a. that all their plots against her failed, and were
never brought to any effect : but b a prince who was always
in woods or forests would be easily overtaken. The king
sent for him in private to inquire more particularly into
this : and he saw it had made a great impression on him,
but wrought otherwise than as he intended. For the king,
resolving to gratify his humour in hunting, and in a careless
and irregular way of life, did immediately order all that
prosecution to be let fall. I have the minutes of the
council books of the year 1606, which are full of orders
to discharge and transport priests, sometimes ten in a day.
From thence to his dying day he continued always writing
and talking against popery, but acting for it. He married 1613.
his only daughter to a protestant prince, one of the most
zealous and sincerest, but one of the weakest, of them all,
the elector palatine ; upon which a great revolution hap-
pened in the affairs of Germany. The eldest branch of
the house of Austria retained some of the impressions that
their father Maximilian the second studied to infuse into
them, who, as he was certainly one of the best and wisest
princes of these latter ages, so he was unalterably fixed in
[ his opinion against persecution for matters of conscience : MS. 6.
his own sentiments were so very favourable to the protes-
tant doctrine that he was thought inwardly theirs. His
brother Charles of Gratz was on the other hand wholly
managed by the Jesuits, was a zealous patron of theirs,
and as zealously supported by them. Rodolph and
Matthias 1 reigned one after another, but without issue ;
their brother Albert was then dying in Flanders : so Spain
with the whole popish interest joined to advance Ferdinand,
the son of Charles of Gratz : and he forced Matthias to re-
sign the crown of Bohemia to him, and got himself to be 1617
elected king. But his government became quickly severe :
he resolved to extirpate the protestants, and began to

a on struck out. b substituted for one.

1 Rodolph and Matthias were the two elder sons of Maximilian.

16 A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. I. break through a the privileges that were secured to them

by the laws of that kingdom.
13 This occasioned a general insurrection, which was followed

1618. by an assembly of the states, who, together with those of
Silesia, Moravia, and Lusatia, joined in deposing Ferdi-
nand : and they offered their crown first to the duke of

1619. Saxony, who refused it, and then to the elector palatine,
who accepted of it, being encouraged to it by his two
uncles, Maurice prince of Orange, and the duke of Bouillon.
But he did not ask the advice of king James : he only gave
him notice of it when he had accepted the offer. Here was
the probablest occasion that has been offered since the
Reformation for its full establishment.

The English nation was much inclined to support it :
and it was expected that so near a conjunction might have
prevailed on the king: but he had an invincible aversion
to war ; and was so possessed of the opinion of a divine
right in all kings that he could not bear that even an elec-
tive and limited king should be called in question by his
subjects : so he would never acknowledge his son-in-law
king, nor give him any assistance for the support of his
new dignity1. And though it was also reckoned on, that
France would enter into any design that should bring down
the house of Austria, and Spain by consequence, yet even
1621. that was diverted by the means of De Luines 2 ; a worth-
less but absolute favourite, whom the archduchess Isabella,
princess of the Spanish Netherlands, gained to oblige the
king [of France] into a neutrality by giving him the richest
heiress then in Flanders, the daughter of Pecquigny, left to
her disposal, whom he married to his brother.

& altered from invade.

1 The want of money and the desire ment in their behalf would be able

to satisfy Spain were additional, to awaken him.'

and powerful, motives. Welwood, 2 It was the revolt of the Hugue-

28, quotes a saying of Gondomar, nots in Beam which prevented the

the Spanish ambassador : ' He had intended interference. Charles d'Al-

willed King James so fast asleep that bert, Sieur de Luines, Constable of

he hoped neither the cries of his France, died whilst suppressing it,

daughter nor her children, nor the Dec. 14, 1621. Martin, Hist, de

repeated solicitations of his Parlia- France, xi. 112-180.

before the Restoration. 17

Thus poor Frederick was left without any assistance. CUAP. I.
The jealousy that the Lutherans had of the ascendant that
the Calvinists might gain by this accession had an unhappy
share in the coldness which all the princes of that confession
shewed a towards hima. Saxony only declared for Fer-
dinand, who likewise engaged the duke of Bavaria1 at the
head of a catholic league to maintain his interests. Maurice
prince of Orange had embroiled Holland by the espousing
the controversy about the decrees of God in opposition to
the Anninian party, and by erecting a new and illegal
court by the authority of the States General to judge of
the affairs of the province of Holland ; which was plainly
contrary to their constitution, by which every province is
an entire sovereignty within itself, not at all subordinate to
the States General, who act only as the plenipotentiaries
of the several provinces to maintain their union and their
common concerns by that assembly h. Barneveldt was
condemned and executed : Grotius and others were con- 1619.
demned to perpetual imprisonment : and an assembly of the 14
ministers of the several provinces met at Dort by the same
authority, and condemned and deprived the Arminians2.
Maurice his enemies gave out that he managed all this on
design to make himself master of the provinces, and to put
those who were like to oppose him out of the way. But
though this seems a wild and groundless imagination, and
not possible to be compassed, yet it is certain that he
looked on Barneveldt and his party as men who were so
jealous of him and of a military power, that as they had
forced the truce with Spain, so they would be very un-
willing to begin0 a new war; though the dispute about

a substituted for on this occasion. b substituted for court, and the full

stop is after that word. c substituted for engage in.

1 Sc. Maximilian II. United Netherlands, iv. passim.

2 James sent commissioners to the In another aspect the conflict was
Assembly of Dort both for England one of the commercial and pro-
and for Scotland. Upon the many fessional oligarchy against central
causes of quarrel between Maurice government. Cf. D'Estrades, Am-
and Barneveldt, and between Holland bassades et Negotiations (1718), 155.
and the other States, see Motley's On Maurice's espousal of Calvinism

VOL. I. C

i8

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. I. Juliers and Cleves had almost engaged them, and the truce
was now near expiring ; at the end of which he hoped, if
delivered from the opposition that he might look [for]
from that party, to begin the war anew. By these means
there was a great fermentation over all the provinces, so
that Maurice was not then in condition to give the elected
king any considerable assistance ; though a indeed he
needed it much, for his conduct was very weak. He affected
the grandeur of a regal court and the magnificence of a
crowned head too early : and his queen set up some of the
gay diversions that she had been accustomed to in her
father's court, such as balls and masks, which very much
disgusted the good Bohemians, who thought that a revolu-
tion made on the account of religion ought to have put on
MS. 7. a greater appearance of seriousness and simplicity. | These
particulars I had from the children of some who belonged
to that court. The elected king was quickly overthrown,

1622. and driven not only out of those his new dominions but like-
wise out of his hereditary countries. He fled to Holland,

1631. where he ended his days. I will go no further in a matter
so well known as king James's ill conduct in the whole
series of that war, and that unheard-of practice of send-

1623. ing his only son through France into Spain, of which the
relations we have are so full that I can add nothing to them.

I will only here tell some particulars with relation to
Germany that Fabricius, the wisest divine I b knew c among
them c, told me he had from Charles Lewis x the elector
palatine's own mouth. He said, Frederic the 2d. who
first reformed the palatinate, whose life is so curiously writ
by Thomas Hubert of Liege2, was resolved to shake off
popery, and to set up Lutheranism in his country: but

* substituted for and. b ever crossed out. c substituted for in Germany.

and Barneveldt's of Arminianism
against their own convictions, for
political reasons, compare f. 316; and
Motley, United Netherlands, iv. 546.
1 Son of Frederick of Bohemia
and Elizabeth, daughter of James I.

2 Hubert Thomas, of Liege, was
a Belgian historian who in 1622
became Secretary to the Elector
Palatine Frederick II. He wrote
Annalium de vita et rebus gestis
Frederici II Comitis Palatini libri xiv

before the Restoration. 19

a counsellor of his laid before him, that the Lutherans CHAP. I.
would always depend chiefly on the house of Saxony : so
it would not become him who was the first elector to be
only the second in the party. a It was more for his dignity
to become Calvinist : he would be the head of that party :
it would give him a great interest in Switzerland, and make
the Huguenots of France and in the Netherlands depend on 15
him. b He was by that determined to declare for the Hel-
vetian confession. But upon the ruin of their family the 1609.
duke of Neuburg had an interview with the elector of
Brandenburg about their concerns in Juliers and Cleves :
and he persuaded that elector to turn Calvinist ; for since
their family was fallen, nothing would more contribute to
raise the other than the espousing that side, which would
naturally come under his protection : but he added, that for
himself he chad turned0 papist, since his little principality
lay so near both Austria and Bavaria 1 . This that elector
told with a sort of pleasure, when he made it appear that other
princes had no mored sense of religion than he himself had.
Other circumstances concurred to make king James's reign
so inglorious. The States having borrowed great sums of
money of queen Elizabeth, they gave her the Brill and
Flushing, with some other places of less note, as pawns,
till the money should be repaid. Soon after his coming to
the crown of England he entered into secret treaties with
Spain2, in order to the forcing the States to a peace: one
article was, that if they were obstinate he would deliver up

a But struck out. b and struck out. c altered from would turn.

d substituted for other.

(1604^); De Palatinorum origine; about the cautionary towns was ' un-

Historia Belli rusticani in Germania meaning verbiage,' explained to the

(1609); and other works. Zedler, States. Gardiner, Hist, of Engl. i.

Universal Lexicon, vol. 43, 1528. 209. Barneveldt came to England

1 The facts are here given very in 1603, not about the cautionary
incorrectly ; see Gardiner, Thirty towns, but to get help for Ostend
Years War (Epochs of Modern against Spain. Id. 105. The debt
History), ai. was ^600,000, of which ^215,000

2 The treaty was public in July, only was paid in 1616. Elizabeth
1604. The States refused to be in- appears to have lent, in 1576,
eluded in it. All that was said another sum of £40,000, for which

C 2

20

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. I. these places to the Spaniards. When the truce was made,
Barneveldt, though he had promoted it, yet knowing this
secret article, he saw they were very unsafe while the keys
of Holland and Zealand were in the hands of a prince who
might perhaps sell them or make an ill use of them : so he
persuaded the States to redeem the mortgage by repaying
the money that England had lent, for which these places
1616. were put in their hands : and he came over himself to treat
about it. King James, who was profuse upon his favourites
and servants, was delighted with the prospect of so much
money ; and immediately, without calling a parliament to
advise with them about it, he did yield to the proposition.
So the money was paid, and the places were evacuated ;
' an action more to be commended for its honesty than
wisdom. But his profuseness drew two other things upon
him, which broke the whole authority of the crown, and
the dependence of the nation upon it. The crown had
a great estate over all England, which was all let out upon
leases for years, and a small rent was reserved. So most
of the great families of the nation were the tenants of the
crown, and a great many boroughs were depending on
the estates so held. The renewal of these leases brought in
fines both to the crown and to the great officers : besides
that the fear of being denied a renewal kept all in a depen-
dence aon the court a. King James obtained of his parlia-
ment a power of granting, athat is selling a, those estates
for ever, with the reserve of the old quit-rent ]: and all a the
money raised bya this was profusely squandered away.
Another main part of the regal authority was the wards,
ie which anciently the crown took into their own management.
bOur kings were, according to the first institution, the

interlined.

and struck out.

Antwerp, Bruges, Ghent, and Ypres
became bound. About 1657 Charles
II tried in vain to get these towns to
advance him money upon condition
of release from this debt. H. M. C.
Rep. viii. 30.

1 There is nothing in the Statutes
to show that James ever obtained
this power. In 1609 he entailed
upon the Crown all lands in his
possession, which enabled him to
limit the effects of his own profusion.

before the Restoration. 21

guardians of these wards l : they bred them up in their CHAP. I.
court, and disposed of them in marriage as they thought
fit. Afterwards they compounded or forgave them, or
gave them to some branches of the family, or to provide
the younger children. But they proceeded in this very
gently : and the chief care after the reformation was to
breed the wards protestants. Still all a were under a great
dependence by this means ; much money was not raised
this way, but families were often at mercy, and were used
according to their behaviour. | King James granted these MS. 8.
generally to his servants and favourites, and they made the
most of them. So that what was before a dependence on
the crown, and was moderately compounded for, became
then a most exacting oppression, by which several families
were ruined. bThis went on in king Charles's time in the
same method. Our kings thought they gave little c when
they disposed of a wardc, because they made little of
these. All this raised such an outcry, that Mr. Pierpoint
at the Restoration gathered so many instances of these>
and represented them so effectually to that house of com-
mons that called home king Charles the second, that he
persuaded them to redeem themselves by an offer of excise, i66r.
which produces indeed a much greater revenue, but took
away the dependence in which all families were held by
the dread of leaving their heirs exposed to so great
a danger. Pierpoint valued himself to me upon this ser-
vice he did his country, at a time when the thing was so
little considered on either hand, that the court did not
seem to apprehend the value of that they parted with, nor
the country the value of that they purchased 2.

" families struck out. b and struck out. c interlined.

1 See the case of the young Duke was one of the objects of the con-

of Ormondin Carte's Ormond, i. 7-10 spirators of the Gunpowder Plot;

(Clarendon Press). For the revenue Gunpowder Treason, with Preface by

raised from the Court of Wards by Thomas, Lord Bishop of Lincoln

Cottington, and for the discontent 1^1679), 250.

thus caused, see Clarendon, Rebellion, 2 The right of wardship accrued

ii. 102. The abolition of wardships when a tenant by knight service

22

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. I. Besides these public a actings, king James a suffered much
in the opinion of all people b by his strange way of using
one of the greatest men of that age, sir Walter Raleigh ;
1618. against whom the proceeding at first was much censured,
but the last part of them was thought both barbarous and
illegal b. The whole business of Somerset's rise and fall, the
matter of the countess of Essex and Overbury, the putting
the inferior persons to death for that infamous poisoning
and the sparing the principals, both Somerset and his lady,
were so odious and inhuman, that it quite sunk the reputa-
tion of a reign that on many other accounts was already
much exposed to contempt and censure, which was the
more sensible because it succeeded such a glorious and
17 happy one 1. In the end of James's reign he was become

a substituted for proceedings, the king. b These four lines are struck out.

happened to be a minor, and con-
sisted in an absolute control over
the revenue of his lands during his
minority, without the necessity of
rendering any account on his coming
of age. Wardship was abolished
by an order of the Long Parliament
on February 24, 1645, and again
by Act of Parliament in 1656,
the abolition to count from the
former date. Scobell, Acts and
Ordinances of the Long Parliament,
375. Purveyance and composition
for purveyance were abolished May,
1657. 7^.383. Clarendon had made
up his mind, before the Restoration,
that the Court of Wards could not
continue. The Act of 1661 turned
all military tenures into 'free and
common soccage,' from Feb. 24,
1645, and was probably a leading
cause of English agricultural pros-
perity. Brodrick, English Land and
English Landlords, 44. Half of the
Excise, reckoned at £ 100,000, was
given to the Crown in perpetuity,
half to the king for life. Hansard's
Parl. Hist., iv. 146-151, 159, 162.
The latter provision was rejected

on Nov. 21 by 151 to 149 (Hansard's
Parl. Hist, is incorrect on this point),
but carried on Nov. 27. C. J. Nov.
21, 27. The original proposal had
been to lay the burden on the land.
Andrew Marvell to the Corporation of
Hull • Grosart's Edn. of MarvelTs
Works, ii. 19-38. Hallam, Hist, of
Engl. sm. ed. ii. 312, 313. See the
Statutes at large, iii. 192. There is
an important paper of reasons against
abolishing the Court of Wards in
the Cal. St. P. Dom. 1660- 1, 361.

1 See the curious work The None-
Such Charles, his Character, extracted
out of divers Originall Transactions, &c.
published by authority, 1651, anon., 96.
According to a statement of Balthasar
Gerbier, who was accused of the
authorship upon internal evidence,
and who had already disclaimed it
in 1652 (Clarendon MSS.\ it was
written by Hugh Peters. Cal. St.
P. Dom. 1661-2, 79. But Peters
was dead and could not deny the
fact ; while there is no reason to
suppose that he should have pub-
lished anonymously words about
Charles I far less severe than those

before the Restoration. 23

a weary of the duke of Buckingham, who treated him with CHAP. I.
such an air of insolent contempt that he seemed at last
resolved to throw it off, but could not think of taking the
load of government on himself, and so resolved to bring in
the earl of Somerset again into favour, as that lord himself
reported it to some from whom I had it. He met him in
the night in the gardens at Theobald's : two bed-chamber
men were only in the secret. The king embraced him
tenderly, and with many tears l complained how ill he was
used. b The earl of Somerset b believed the secret was not
well kept ; for soon after the king was taken with some
fits of an ague, and died cof itc. My father was then in
London, and did very much suspect an ill practice in the
matter : but perhaps doctor Craig, my mother's uncle, d who
was one of the king's physicians d, possessed him with these
apprehensions ; for he was disgraced for saying he believed
the king was poisoned. It is certain no king could die less
lamented or less esteemed than he was. This sunk the
credit of the bishops of Scotland, who, as they were his
creatures, so they were obliged to a great dependence on
him, and were thought guilty of gross6 and abject flattery
towards him f. His reign in England was a continued
course of mean g practices. The first condemnation of sir
W. Raleigh, one of the greatest men of the age, was h very
black h : but the executing him after so many years, and
after an employment that had been given him, was counted
a barbarous sacrificing him to the Spaniards. The rise
and fall of the earl of Somerset1, and the swift progress

ft so struck out. b substituted for He. c substituted for quickly

after. d interlined. e substituted for great. f The passage from

here to the end of the paragraph, 'corruption of Spain,' is added on the
reverse side of the opposite leaf/. 7b. g substituted for base and infamous.
h substituted for a piece of black villainy. ' and the pardoning him and

his lady for the poisoning of Sir Tho. Overbury, ivhen their agents suffered but
they who were the principals were pardoned, and the unaccountable rise struck out.

which he owned. Gerbier had, of J This story of a reconciliation

course, in 1661 good reason for his appears to be absolutely groundless,

disclaimer. See Wheatley's edition Somerset was par donedafew months

of Pepys, iii. 148 note. before the death of James. Craig

24 A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. I. of the duke of Buckingham's greatness, were things that
exposed him to the censures a of all the world. I have
seen the originals of about twenty letters that he wrote to
the prince and that duke while they were in Spain, which
shew a meanness as well as a fondness that render him
very contemptible. b The great figure the crown of England
had made in queen Elizabeth's time, who had rendered0
herself the arbiter of Christendom and the wonder of
the age, was so much eclipsed, if not quite darkened,
during this reign, that king James was become the scorn
of the age ; and while hungry writers flattered him out of
measure at home, he was despised by all abroad as a pedant
without true judgment, courage, or steadiness, subject to
his favourites, and delivered up to the counsels, or rather
the corruption, of Spain 1.

The puritans gained credit as the king and the bishops
lost it 2. They put on external appearance of great strict-
ness and gravity : they took more pains in their parishes
than those who adhered to the bishops, and were often
preaching against the vices of the court ; for which they
were sometimes punished, though very gently, which raised
is their reputation, and drew presents d to them d that made
up their sufferings abundantly. They began some parti-
cular methods of getting their people to meet privately
with them : and in these meetings they gave great vent to
extemporary prayer, which was looked on as a sort of
inspiration : and by these means they grew very popular.
They were very factious and insolent ; and both in their
sermons and prayers were always mixing severe reflections
on their enemies. Some of them boldly gave out very
many predictions ; particularly two of them who were held

a substituted for contempt. b and struck out. c substituted for

tnacie, struck out. d interlined.

was one of the regular physicians in
attendance upon the king, and was
jealous on the score of remedies being
applied by Buckingham's mother,
which were suggested by a country

doctor at Dunmow. Gardiner, v. 313.

1 On this passage see Remarks on
Bishop Burnefs History by a True
Briton (London, n.d.}

2 Sc. in Scotland.

before the Restoration. 25

prophets, Davison and Bruce 1. Some of the things that CHAP. i.
they foretold came to pass : but my father, who knew them
both, told me of many of their predictions that he himself
heard them throw out, which had no effect : but all these
were forgot, and if some more probable guessings which
they delivered as prophecies were accomplished, these were
much magnified. They were very spiteful against all those
who differed from them ; and were wanting in no methods
that could procure them either good usage or good pre-
sents. Of this my father had great occasion to see many
instances : for my great grandmother, | who was a very
rich woman, and much engaged to them, was most obse- MS. 9.
quiously courted by them. Bruce lived concealed in her
house for some years : and they all found such advantages
in their submissions to her, that she was counted for many
years the chief support of the party : her name was Rachel
Arnot. She was daughter to sir John Arnot, a man in great
favour, and lord treasurer depute. Her husband Johnston
was the greatest merchant at that time ; and left her an
estate of 2ooo/. a year, to be disposed of among his children
as she pleased: and my father marrying her eldest grandchild
saw a great way a into all the methods of the puritans.

Cowrie's conspiracy was by them charged on the king,
as a contrivance of his to get rid of that earl, who was then jeoi.
held in great esteem : but my father, who had taken great
pains to inquire into all the particulars of that matter, did
always believe it was a real conspiracy 2. b One thing,

a substituted for deal. b and struck out.

1 Davison was minister of Lib- consequence. Spottiswoode, iii. 90,

berton. Bruce, the most popular 103.

presbyterian minister of his day, * There is no valid reason for

officiated at the coronation of James's doubting its genuineness. Burton's

queen ; withstood James to the face History of Scotland, vi. 86-135 ;

when the catholic earl of Huntly Cromarty's History of the Conspiracies

returned in 1596 ; and was banished of the Earl of Gowrie. Upon Cowrie

for refusing to answer as was and his descendants see Bruce,

desired about Gowrie. He gave Papers relating to William, ist Earl

way, and was allowed to return in of Gowrie, and Patrick Ruthven his

1602; but incurred the displeasure $th and last surviving sow, privately

of the Kirk and was discharged in printed, London, 1867.

26 A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. I. which none of the historians have taken any notice of,
might have induced a the earl of Gowrie a to put king James
out of the way, but in such a disguised manner that he
should seem rather to have escaped out of a snare than to
have laid one for the king. bUpon the king's death he
stood next to the succession to the crown of England1; for
king Henry the seventh's daughter that was married to
king James the fourth did after his death marry Douglas
earl of Angus : but they could not agree : so a precontract
was proved against him, upon which, by a sentence from
19 Rome, the marriage was voided, with a clause in favour of
the issue, since born under a marriage de facto and bona
fide. Lady Margaret Douglas was the child so provided
for. I cdid peruse0 the original bull confirming the
divorce. After that, the queen dowager married one
Francis Stewart, and had by him a son made lord Methven
by king James the fifth. In the patent he is called frater
noster uterinus. He had only a daughter, who was mother
d or grandmother d to this earl of Gowrie : so that by this he
might be glad to put the king out of the way, that so he
might stand next to the succession of the crown of England.
He had a brother then a child, who when he grew up and
found he could not carry the name of Ruthven, which by an
act of parliament made after this conspiracy none might
carry, he went and lived beyond sea ; and it was given out
that he had the philosopher's stone. He had two sons,
who died without issue ; and one daughter, married to

a substituted for him to have wished. b was that struck out.

c substituted for read. d interlined.

1 See Preface to the 1823 edition. Burnet has been completely misled.
'Francis Stewart' should be Henry Stewart, ist Earl of Methven, who
married and had heirs as follows : —

(i) Margaret Tudor, widow of the Earl of Angus.

She had one child who died in infancy.

Henry Stewart, =r (2) Janet Stewart, eldest daughter of John and
ist Earl of Methven | Earl of Athol.

Henry, 2nd Joanna Dorothea =p William, Master of Ruthven,
Earl of Methven. | ist Earl of Gowrie.

James, 2nd Earl of Gowrie. John, srd Earl of Gowrie.

From which it is clear that Gowrie had absolutely no claim.

before the Restoration. 27

sir Anthony Vandyke the famous picture drawer1, awho CHAP. I.
according to this pedigree stood very near the succession
of the crown a. It was not easy to persuade the nation of
the truth of that conspiracy : for eight years before that
time king James, on a secret jealousy of the earl of Murray,
then esteemed the handsomest man of Scotland, set on the
marquis of Huntly, who was his mortal enemy, to murder 1592.
him; and by a writing2, all in his own hand, he promised
to save him harmless for it. He set the house in which he
was on fire : and the earl flying away was followed and
murdered, and Huntly sent Gordon of Buckey with the
news to the king. b All c who were c concerned in that
vile fact were pardoned, which laid the king open to much
censure. And this made the matter of Gowrie c to be c the
less believed.

CHAPTER II.

CHARLES I.

To the outbreak of the Civil War.

WHEN king Charles succeeded to the crown, he was at 1625.
first thought favourable to the puritans ; for his tutor and
all his court were of that way 3 : and Dr. Preston, then

a interlined. b struck out. c interlined.

1 William and Patrick Ruthven Jane Hepburn, sister of Bothwell,
were the 4th and 5th sons of the ist husband of Mary Queen of Scots; and
Earl of Gowrie. At the accession of was created Earl of Bothwell in 1587.
James to the English throne, William For his turbulence see Spottiswoode
escaped from the country; but and Burton. The writ was issued
Patrick was arrested, and remained after his raid upon Holyrood in 1592.
in the Tower from 1603 to 1624, Huntly treated Murray, the 'bonnie
dying in 1652. He, like his brother, Earl of Murray,' as an accomplice;
was a noted chemist, and practised he was son-in-law to the great Earl
medicine for a livelihood in London of Murray who had oppressed
after his release. It was his Huntly's clan, the Gordons. As
daughter Mary who married Van- Huntly was a papist, this commission
dyke in 1640. Bruce, Papers relating caused great anger among the
&c. 57. Supra 25, note. ministers.

2 The writ, ' letters of fire and * He was always very partial
sword,' was against Francis Stewart, to the Scottish nation. Dr. Heylin,
Earl of Bothwell, son of an illegiti- in his history of the Presbyterians,
mate son of James V ; he married says, that a little before their break-

28

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. II. the head of the party, came up in the coach a from Theo-
bald's to London a with the king and the duke of
Buckingham ; which being against the rules of the court
gave great offence : but it was said, the king was so over-
charged with grief that he wanted the comfort of so wise
and so great a man. It was also given out that the duke
of Buckingham offered Preston the great seal : but he was
wiser than to accept of it1. I will go no further into the
beginning of that reign with relation to English affairs,
which are fully opened by others ; only I will tell one par-
ticular which I had from the earl of Lothian 2, who was bred
up in this court, and whose father, the earl of Ancram, was
gentleman b of the bedchamber, though he himself was
20 ever much hated by the king. He told me, that king
Charles was much offended with king James's light and
familiar way, which was the effect of hunting and drinking,
on which occasions he was very apt to forget his dignity,
and to break out into great indecencies : on the other hand
the solemn gravity of the court of Spain was more suited
to his own temper, which was sullen even to a morose-

a interlined. b interlined.

ing out into rebellion the court
might well be called an academy of
that nation ; most of the officers of
the household, and seven out of eight
of the grooms of the bedchamber,
which proved of very great use to
them in being constantly informed
of his majesty's most private trans-
actions during the civil war. D.
Cp. f. 244 for the case of William
Murray, afterwards Earl of Dysart,
upon whom see also infra, 106.

1 Preston, chaplain to Prince
Charles, was made master of Em-
manuel College, Cambridge, in 1622,
through Buckingham's influence. In
1626 he published an attack upon
Montagu's < Appello Caesarem.'
There does not appear to be any
good evidence upon this point ; but

it is asserted that he 'was nominated
to be Lord Keeper' in the Life of
the renowned Dr. Preston, writ by his
pupil, Master Thomas Ball, D.D.,
1628, ed. E. W. Harcourt, 1885, 117.
Preston was the author of a large,
number of devotional and contro-
versial works. He died in 1628 at
the age of 41. In Fuller's Worthies
he is described as a successful private
tutor, ' the greatest pupil monger in
England.' On Preston's influence
with Buckingham see Hackett, Life
of Archbishop Williams, i. 203-206
(1692).

2 See the Correspondence of Sir
Robert Kerr, 1st Earl of Ancrum
(d. 1654), and h's son William, yd
Earl of Lothian ;d. 1675% ed. David
Laing, 1875. Cf. infra, 87.

before the Restoration. 29

ness. This led him to a grave reserved deportment, in CHAP. II.
which he forgot the civilities and the affability that the
nation naturally loved, and to which they had been long
accustomed : nor did he in his outward deportment take
any pains to oblige any | persons whatsoever : so far from MS. 10.
that, he had such an ungracious way of shewing favour
that the manner of bestowing it was almost as mortifying
as the favour was obliging. a I turn now to the affairs of
Scotland, which are but little known1.

The king resolved to carry on the two designs that his
father had set on foot, but had let the prosecution of them
fall in the last years of his reign. The first b of these b was
about the recovery of the tithes and church lands. He
resolved to prosecute his father's revocation, and to void
all the grants made in his minority2; and to create titular 1625.
abbots as lords of parliament, c but lords as bishops only
for life0. And that the two great families of Hamilton and
Lennox might be good examples to the rest of the nation,
he, by a secret purchase and with English money, bought
the abbey of Aberbroth of the former, and the lordship of
Glasgow of the latter, and gave these to the two arch-
bishoprics. These lords made a shew of zeal d after a good
bargain"1, and surrendered them to the king3. He also

a But struck out. b interlined. c interlined. d interlined.

1 Nor worth knowing. S. Byway Clarendon, the lands purchased of
of censure on the author's diffusive- the Duke of Lennox were not to be
ness when mentioning the affairs of settled on either of the arch-
Scotland Swift has thus interlined bishoprics, but on the bishopric of
the title of the work: The History of Edinburgh, which was at this time
(Scotland in) his own Times. R. erected. To the same purpose

'2 In 1625 Charles I revoked all Collier's Eccles. Hist. ii. 756. Dr.

the acts of his father prejudicial to Bliss's MS. note on this history.

the Crown, as a first step towards Lockhart of Carnwark, in his Letters

the resumption of the Church lands written in the year 1724 respecting

whether granted away before or after Burnet's History, asserts that the

the annexation of 1587 ; supra, 10. original deeds are still extant in the

3 Lord Clarendon says [i. 182], register of public records at Edin-

that the Duke of Lennox sold his burgh, by which the abbey of Ar-

estate much the cheaper, that it broath, or Aberbroth, was resigned

might be consecrated to so pious an to the king by the Marquis of

end. Besides, according to Lord Hamilton for the abbey lands of

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. II. purchased several estates of less value to the several sees ;
and all men who pretended to favour at court offered their
church lands a to sale at low rates a.

In the third year of his reign the earl of Nithisdale1, then
believed a papist, which he afterwards professed, having
1626. married a niece of the duke of Buckingham's, was sent down
with a power to take the surrenders of all church lands,
and to assure all who did readily surrender that the king
would take it kindly, and use them all very well, but that
he would proceed with all rigour against those who would
not submit their rights to his disposal. Upon his coming
down, those b who were most concerned in those grants
met at Edinburgh, and agreed that when they were called
together, if c no other argument did prevail c to make the
earl of Nithisdale desist, they would d fall upon him and all
his party in the old Scotch manner, and knock them on
the head. e Primrose2 told me one of these lords, Belhaven,
21 of the name of Douglas, who was blind, bid them set him
by one of the party, and he should make sure of one 3. So

a substituted for at easy pennyworths. b substituted for all. c altered
from if other arguments did not prevail. d substituted for resolved to.

0 and struck out.

Lasmahago, and that Arbroath was
given, not to the archbishopric of St.
Andrews, but to William Murray,
afterwards created Earl of Dysart,
who sold it to the Earl of Panmure,
in whose family it long continued.
See Lockhart Papers, i. 598. R.
Compare Gardiner, vii. 278, note.

1 Nithisdale's mission was in 1626.

8 Sir Archibald Primrose, Clerk
Register under Charles II, see infra,
190.

3 This brings to my remembrance
a story I heard the first Duke of
Bolton tell of himself before a great
deal of company : that when the bill
of exclusion was debating in the
house of lords, the old Earl of Peter-
borough said that was a cause in
which every man in England was ob-
liged to draw his sword, and laid his

hand upon his own, as if he designed
to draw it immediately, which created
a great disorder, and everybody
seemed preparing to do the like :
upon which the Duke of Bolton said
he got as near to the Marquis of
Halifax as he could, being resolved
to make sure of him, in case any
violence had been offered : and that
there were more who had taken the
same resolution, though he did not
name them. D. There is good
reason for thinking the story in the
text untrue, though well reflecting
the spirit of the time. Mr. Gardiner
points out (vii. 278, note} — though
this is not conclusive, as Burnet
sometimes speaks of men by their
later styles - that the titles of Bel-
haven and Dumfries did not exist
until 1633. Sir Robert Douglas of

before the Restoration. 31

he was set next the earl of Dumfries : he was all the while CHAP. n.
holding him fast : and when the other asked him what he
meant by that, he said, ever since the blindness was come on
him he was in such fear of falling, that he could not help the
holding fast to those who were next him : he had all the
while a poinard in his other hand, with which he had cer-
tainly stabbed Dumfries, if any disorder had happened.
The appearance at that time was so great, and so much heat
was raised upon it, that the earl of Nithisdale would not open
all his instructions, but came back to court, looking on the
service as desperate. So a stop was put to it for some time.
In the year 1633 the king came down in person to be
crowned. In some conventions of the states that had been 1633.
held before that, all the money that the king had asked
was given ; and some petitions were offered setting forth
grievances, which those whom the king employed had
assured them should be redressed : but nothing was done,
and all was put off till the king should come down
in person. His entry and coronation were managed with
such magnificence, that the country suffered much by it :
all was entertainment and shew1. When the parliament sat,
the lords of the articles2 prepared an act declaring the royal
prerogative- as it had been asserted by law in the year
1606 ; to which an addition was made of another act passed
in the year 1609, by which king James was impowered to
prescribe apparel to churchmen with their own consent.
This was a personal thing to king James, in consideration
of his great learning and experience, of which he had made
no use during the rest of his reign. And in the year 1617,
when he held a parliament there in person, an act was

Spott, and William, seventh Lord rebellion. The coronation, moreover,
Crichton of Sanquhar, were created was conducted so as to wound
respectively Viscount Belhaven and presbyterian feeling to the utmost.
Earl of Dumfries in that year. 2 A committee of the estates,
1 Clarendon, Rebellion, i. 170, goes which settled the details of measures
so far as to say that the impoverish- before they were submitted to Parlia-
ment of the nobles through their ment. The estates themselves voted
extravagant expenditure on this on a measure as a whole. See infra,
occasion had much to do with the 209, and note thereto.

32 A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. II. prepared by the lords of the articles, authorizing all things
that should thereafter be determined in ecclesiastical affairs
by his majesty, with consent of a competent number of the
clergy, to have the strength and power of a law. But the
king either apprehended that great opposition would be
made to the passing the 'act, or that great trouble would
follow on the execution of it : so when the rubric of the act
was read, he ordered it to be suppressed, though passed in
the articles. In this act of 1633 these acts of 1606 and
1609 were drawn into one. To this great opposition was
made by the earl of Rothes, who desired the acts might bs
divided : but the king said it was now one act, and he must
either vote for it or against it. He said he was for the
prerogative as much as any man, but that addition was
contrary to the liberties of the church, and he thought no
22 determination ought to be made in such matters without
the consent of the clergy, at least without their being heard.
The king bid him argue no more, but give his vote : so he
voted not content. Some few lords offered to argue : but
the king stopped them l, and commanded them to vote.
aAlmost the whole commons voted in the negative : so that
the act was indeed rejected by the majority : which the
MS. ii. king knew, | for he had called for a list of the numbers,
and with his own pen had marked every man's vote : yet
the clerk of register, who gathers and declares the votes,
said it was carried in the affirmative. Rothes affirmed it
went for the negative : so the king said, the clerk of register's
declaration must be held good, unless Rothes would go to
the bar, and accuse him of falsifying the record of parlia-
ment, b which was capital b : and in that case, if he should
fail in the proof, he was liable to the same punishment.
c But the earl of Rothes c would not venture on that. Thus
the act was published, though in truth it was rejected.

a but struck out. b interlined. c altered from so he.

1 Napier (Montrose and the Covenanters, i. 521) disposes of this story. It
is not mentioned in the supplication for which Balmerino was prosecuted.

before the Restoration. 33

The king expressed a high displeasure at all who had con- CHAP. II.
curred in that opposition. Upon that the lords had many
meetings : they reckoned that now all their liberties were
gone, and a parliament was but a piece of pageantry, if
the clerk of register might declare as he pleased how the
vote went, and that no scrutiny were allowed. Upon that,
Haig1, the king's solicitor, a zealous man of that party,
drew a petition to be signed by the lords, and to be offered
by them to the king, setting forth all their grievances, and
praying redress : he shewed this to some of them, and among
others to the lord Balmerino 2, who liked the main of it,
but was for altering it in some particulars : he spoke of it
to Rothes a in the presence of the earl of Cassillis and some
others : none of them approved of it. Rothes carried it to
the king ; and told him, that a there was a design to offer
a petition in order to the explaining and justifying their
proceedings, b and that he had a copy to shew him b : but
the king c would not look upon it, andc ordered him to
put a stop to it, for he would receive no such petition.
Rothes told this to Balmerino : so the thing was laid
aside : only he kept a copy of it, and d interlined it in some
places d with his own hand. While the king was in Scot-
land he erected a new bishopric at Edinburgh, and made
one Forbes bishop, who was a very learned and pious man :
he had a strange faculty of preaching five or six hours at
a time : his way of life and devotion was thought monastic,
and his learning lay in antiquity : he studied to be a recon-
ciler between papist and protestant, leaning rather to the
first, as appears by his Consider ationes modestce : he was
a very simple man, and knew little of the world : so he fell 23
into several errors in conduct, but died soon after suspected

a substituted for who told the king. b interlined. c interlined.

d substituted for titled it on the back.

1 William Haig of Bemerside; the Maxwells of Pollock, \. 20.

Burton, vi. 379. See The Haigs of 2 Son of the Balmerino mentioned

Bemerside, by John Russell (1881), supra, 8. For the whole story see

194, &c. ; Masson, Drummond of Gardiner, vii. 294, and H. M. C.

Haivthornden, 233, 235 ; State Trials, Rep. ix. part ii. 262.
iii. 605-607, 699-702 ; Memoirs of

VOL. I. D

34

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. II. of popery1, which suspicion was increased by his son's
turning papist. The king left Scotland much discontented,
but resolved to prosecute the design of recovering the church
lands: and sir Thomas Hope, a subtle lawyer, who was
believed to understand that matter beyond all the men of
his profession, though in all respects he was a zealous
puritan, was made king's advocate, upon his undertaking
to bring all the church lands back to the crown 2 : yet he
proceeded in that matter so slowly that it was believed he
acted in concert with the party a that opposed it a. Enough
was already a done to alarm all that were possessed of the
church lands : and they, to engage the whole country in
their quarrel, took care to infuse it into all people, but
chiefly into the preachers, that all was done to make way
for popery. The winter after the king was in Scotland,
b Balmerino was thinking how to make the petition more
acceptable : and in order to that he shewed it to one Dun-
moor, a lawyer in whom he trusted and desired his opinion
of it, and suffered him to carry it home with him, but
charged him to shew it to no person, and to take no copy
of it : yet he took a copy of it, and shewed it under a
promise of secrecy to one Hay of Naughton, and told him
from whom he had it. Hay looking on b the paper, and

" interlined. b The words 'Balmerino' to ' Hay looking on' are

substituted for the following, which are crossed out : a gentleman came to visit
Balmerinoch , Hay of Nachton, who was kindly received by him, and was
brought by him into his closet. While they were there one came to speak to
Balmerinoch, who went to the door, not suspecting any foul dealing from his
neighbour, but he fell immediately to look into the papers that lay on his table,
and seeing one marked on the back The Petition of those that voted against the
Act, he put it in his pocket, and the other misdoubting nothing they parted very
fair. He looking into.

1 Quam insigniter reverendo viio Bishop Bedell, The Considerationes

(Guil. Forbesio) injurii sint, qui eum
Catholicum Rom. praedicant, inter
alia perspicuum est concione publica
ab eo habita Edinburgi coram rege
Carolo I. an. 1633. Vit. Joh. Forbesii
(i Corse, p. 10. R. William Forbes
was appointed in January, 163^, and
died in the April or May following.
See Burnet's Preface to the Life of

Modestae was a posthumous work,
edited by Sydserfe, and published in
1658 (Brit. Mus. E. 1772 (i)).

2 Hope, one of the most noted of
Scotch lawyers and statesmen, drew
the Act of Revocation of 1625, and
was made Advocate-General in May,
1626, and Baronet of Nova Scotia in
1628. He died in 1646. See the

before the Restoration. 35

seeing it a matter of some consequence, carried it to Spottis- CHAP. II.
woode, archbishop of St. Andrews ; who, apprehending it
was going about for hands, was alarmed at it, and went
immediately to London, beginning his journey, as he often a
did, on a Sunday, which was a very odious thing in that
country. There are laws in Scotland very loosely worded,
that make it capital b to spread lies of the king or his
government, or to alienate his subjects from him l. It was c
also made capital to know of any that do it, and not discover
them : but this last d was never once put in execution.
The petition was thought within this act : so an order was
sent down for committing Balmerino, the reason of it
being for some time kept secret ; so it was thought done 1634.
because of his vote in parliament. But after some con-
sultation, a special commission was sent down for his trial.
In Scotland there is a court for the trial of peers distinct
from the jury, who are to be fifteen, and the majority deter-
mine the verdict, the fact being only | referred to the jury MS. 12.
or assize, as they call it, and the law is judged by the court :
and if the majority c of the jury6 are peers, the rest may be
gentlemen. At this time a private gentleman of the name
of Stewart was become so considerable that he was raised
by several degrees to be made earl of Traquair and lord
treasurer, and was in high favour 2 ; but suffered afterwards
such f a reverse of fortune that I saw him so low that he 24
wanted bread, and was forced to beg, and it was believed
he died of hunger. He was a man of great parts, but 8 of
too g much craft : he was thought the capablest man for
business, and the best speaker in that kingdom. So he was

a substituted for usually. b substituted for criminal. c substituted for is.
A part struck out. e interlined. f substituted for 50 great. * interlined.

Diary of the Public Correspondence of 2 Sir J. Stewart of Traquair,

Sir Thomas Hope of Craighall (Ban- created Lord Stewart of Traquair in

natyne Club, 1843) ; and, upon his 1628, taken prisoner at Preston, 1648;

whole career, Omond, Lord Advo- died 1659. ' The only counselor or

cafes of Scotland, i. layman relied upon by the archbishop

1 Rushworth, ii. 281, mentions the of Canterbury in that business [sc. of

belief at court that the petitioners the Liturgy].1 Clarendon, Rebellion,

intended to make the paper public. ii. 12.

D 2

36 A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. II. charged with the care of a the lord a Balmerino's trial :
but when the ground of the prosecution was known, Haig,
who drew the petition, writ a letter to b the lord b Balme-
rino, in which he owned that he drew the petition without
any direction or assistance from him c : and upon that he
went over to Holland. The court was created by a special
commission : in the naming of judges there appeared too
visibly a design to have that lord's life, for they were either
very weak or very poor 1. Much pains was taken to have
a jury ; in which so great partiality appeared that when
d the lord d Balmerino was upon his challenges, and
excepted to the earl of Dumfries for his having said, that
if he were of his jury though he were as innocent as St.
Paul he would find him guilty, some of the "judges said
that was only a rash word : yet the king's advocate allowed
the challenge if proved, which e could not be e done. The
next called on was the earl of Lauderdale, father to the
duke of that title : with him f the lord f Balmerino had
been long in enmity : yet instead of challenging him, he
said he was omni exceptione major. It was long considered
upon what the prisoner should be tried : for his hand inter-
lining g the paper, h which did plainly soften it h, was not
thought evidence that he drew it, or that he was accessory
to it : and they had no other proof against him : nor could
they from that infer that he was the divulger, since it
appeared it was ion\y shewed by him to a lawyer for
counsel \ So it was settled on to insist only on this, that
the paper tended to alienate the subjects from their duty
to the king, and that he, knowing who was the author of it,
did not discover him ; which by law was capital. The
court judged the paper to be seditious, and to be a lie of
the king and of his government : the other point was clear,
that he knowing the author did not discover him. He

a interlined. b interlined. « substituted for that lord.

d interlined. e substituted for was. f interlined. e substituted

for on the back of. h interlined. * substituted for stole from him.

1 This also is disproved by Napier, Montrose and the Covenanters, i. 526.

before the Restoration. 37

pleaded for himself, that the statute a for discovery a had CHAP. II.
never been put in execution ; that it could never be meant
but of matters that were notoriously seditious ; that till
the court judged so of this, he did not take bthis paper b
to be of that nature, but considered it c as a paper full of
duty, designed to set himself and some others right in the
king's opinion ; that upon the first sight of it, though he
approved of the main yet he disliked some expressions in
it ; that he communicated the matter to d the earl of d Rothes,
who told the king of the design ; and that upon the king's
saying he would receive no such petition it was quite laid 25
aside. This was attested by fethe earl ofe Rothes. A long
debate had been f much insisted on f, whether g the earl of8
Traquair or the king's ministers might be of the jury hor
noth : but the court gave it in their favour. When the jury
was shut up, Gordon of Buckey, who was one of them, being
then very ancient, who forty-three years before had assisted
in the murder of the earl of Murray, and was thought upon
this occasion a sure man, spoke first of all, excusing his
presumption in being the first that broke the silence. He
desired they would all consider what they were about : it was
a matter of blood, and they would feel the weight of that as
long as they lived : he had in his youth been drawn in to
shed blood, for which he had the king's pardon, but it cost
him more to obtain God's pardon : it had given him many
sorrowful hours both day and night : and as he spoke Hhis,1
the tears run over his face l. This struck a damp on them
all. But k the earl of k Traquair took up the argument ;
and said they had it not before them whether the law was
a hard law or not, nor had they the nature of the paper
Before them1, which was judged mby the court to bem
leasing-making ; they were only to consider whether the
prisoner had discovered the contriver of the paper or not.

a interlined. b for it. c only struck out. d interlined.

e interlined. f interlined. e interlined. h interlined.

* interlined. k interlined. 1 interlined. m interlined.

1 Haigs of Bemerside, 212, 213.

38 A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. II. Upon this athe earl of a Lauderdale took up the argument
against him, and urged that severe laws never executed
were looked on as made only to terrify b people b; that though
now, the court having judged the paper to be seditious,
after that it c would be capital to conceal c the author, yet
before such judgment the thing could not be thought so
evident that he was bound to reveal it. Upon these heads
those lords argued the matter many hours : but when it
1635. went to the vote, seven acquitted, but eight cast him : so
sentence was given. Upon this manyd meetings were held :
and it was resolved either to force the prison and to set him
at liberty, or, if that failed, to revenge his death both on the
court and on the eight jurors ; some undertaking to kill
MS. 13. them, and others to burn their houses. When | e the earl
of Traquair6 understood this, he went to court, and told
the king that fthe lordf Balmerino's life was now in his
hands, but the execution was in no sort advisable : so he
procured his pardon, with which heg was often reproached
for his ingratitude : but he thought he had been so much
wronged in the prosecution, and so little regarded in the
pardon, that he never looked on himself as under any
obligation on that account *. My father knew the whole
steps of this matter, having been hthe earl ofh Lauderdale's
most particular friend: he1 often told me that the ruin of
the king's affairs in Scotland was in a great measure owing
to that prosecution ; and he carefully preserved the petition
26 itself, and the papers relating to the trial, of which I never
saw any copy besides that which I have. kAnd that raised
in me a desire of seeing the whole record, which was copied
out for me, and is now in my hands. It is a little volume, and
contains, according to the Scotch method, the whole abstract

a interlined. b interlined. c for it had been capital to have concealed.

d for great. « interlined. f interlined. * he for the party.

h interlined. J for and. k added on opposite page.

1 See the letter from Warriston to History of Great Britain in the reign
Balmerino of Feb. 27, 1641, in Me- of Charles /, ed. by David Dalrymple
morials and Letters relating to the (1766,1, 107.

before the Restoration. 39

of all the pleadings and all the evidence that was given ; and CHAP. II.
is indeed a very noble piece, full of curious matter k.

While the design of recovering the tithes went on, though
but slowly, another design made a greater progress. The
bishops of Scotland fell on the framing a liturgy and a body
of canons for the worship and government of that church l. 1636.
These were never examined in any public assembly of the
clergy : all was managed by three or four aspiring bishops,
Maxwell, Sydserfe, Whitford, and Banantyne, the bishops of
Ross, Galloway, Dumblane, and Aberdeen 2. Maxwell did
also accuse athe earl ofa Traquair, as cold in the king's
service, and as managing the treasury deceitfully ; and he
was aspiring to that office. Spottiswoode, archbishop of
St. Andrews, being then lord chancellor, was a prudent
and mild man, but of no b great b decency in his course of
life ; for he was a frequent player at cards, and used to eat
often in taverns 3 : besides that, all his livings were scan-
dalously exposed to sale by his servants. cThe earl ofc

a interlined. b interlined. c interlined.

1 Issued in 1636 on the sole and Letters, &c., 18.

authority of the king. Compare 2 Bellenden— often spelt as in the

Clarendon, Rebellion, i. 177, 183, and text— had been passed over for pro-

ii. i, 4. The draft of the liturgy, motion for failing to read the English

prepared by the Scotch prelates, prayer book in the Chapel Royal,

was revised by Laud, Juxon, and the deanery of which was attached

Wren of Norwich ; and Clarendon to the bishopric of Dumblane, then

notes the national jealousy caused held by him. Upon his acquiescence

by the attempt to enforce an English he was made Bishop of Aberdeen in

liturgy, as well as the feeling aroused May, 1635. See Laud's severe letters

among the nobility by the placing of in Memorials and Letters, Sec. See also

Spottiswoode and several bishops, the letter of Burnet's father in praise

for the first time, on the Privy of Sydserfe, written about 1639.

Council. He also emphasizes the Id. ii. 72.

mistake of the issuing of the canons, 3 John Livingstone relates that

which were, as Burnet points out, Spottiswoode and Law were on one

never submitted to any assembly of occasion censured by the provincial

the clergy, previous to the intro- synod of Lothian for playing foot-

duction of the liturgy. Juxon at least ballon the Sabbath. Wodrow Society :

had no doubt of the immediate effect. Select Biographies, Livingstone, 296.

' The new canons will,' he says, 'at This adds point to his description of

first make as much noise as the can- Archbishop Usher, ' ane godly man

nons in Edinburgh castle.' Memorials although ane Bishop.' Id. 145.

40 A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. II. Traquair, seeing himself so pushed at, was more earnest

than the bishops themselves in promoting the new models

of worship and discipline ; and by that he recovered the
ground he had lost with the king, and with archbishop
Laud. He also assisted the bishops in obtaining commis-
sions, subaltern to the high commission court, in their
several dioceses, which were thought little different from
the courts of inquisition. Sydserfe set this up in Galloway :
and a complaint being made in council of his proceedings,
he gave athe earl ofa Argyll the lie in full council. He
was after all a very learned and good man. but strangely
heated in those matters. And they all were so lifted up
with the king's zeal, and so encouraged by b archbishop b
Laud, that they lost all temper l ; of which I knew Sydserfe
make great acknowledgments in his old age.

c The d most d unaccountable part of the king's proceedings
was, that all this while, when he was endeavouring to re-
cover so great a part of the property of Scotland as the
church lands and tithes were from men that were not like
to part with them willingly, and ewas going6 to change
the whole constitution of that church and kingdom, he
raised no force to maintain what he was about to do, but
trusted the whole management to the civil execution. By
this means all people saw the weakness of the government,
at the same time that they complained of its rigour. f All
that came gdowng from court complained of the king's
inexorable stiffness, and of the progress popery was making,
27 of the queen's power with h the king, of the favour shewed
the pope's nuntios, and of the many proselytes * who were
daily falling off to the church of Rome *. Traquair infused
this more effectually, though more covertly, than any other
k man k could do : and when the country formed the first
opposition they made to the king's proclamations, and

a interlined. b interlined. c But struck out. d interlined.

e interlined. f A nd struck out. % interlined. h for over.

1 interlined. k interlined.

1 Of this < encouragement ' there are some curious instances in Burton, vi. 388.

before the Restoration. 41

protested against them, he drew the first protestation, as CHAP. II.
Primerose assured me 1 ; though he designed no more than
to put a stop to the credit the bishops had, and to the fury
of their proceedings: but the matter went much further
than he seemed to intend : and he himself was fatally caught
in the snare he laid for others. A troop of horse and a
regiment of foot had prevented all that followed, or, rather,
had by all appearance established an arbitrary government
in that kingdom 2 : but, to speak in the language of a great
man, those who conducted matters at that time had as little
of the prudence of the serpent as of the innocence of the
dove : and, as my father often told me, he and many others,
who adhered in the sequel firmly to the king's interest, were
then much troubled at the whole conduct of affairs, as being
neither wise, legal, nor just. I will go no further in opening
the beginnings of the troubles of Scotland : of a these a a full
account will be found in the memoirs of the dukes of
Hamilton 3 : of which I will take the boldness to set down
the character which sir Robert Moray 4, who had a great
share in the affairs of that time, and knew the whole secret
of them, gave, after he read it in manuscript, that he did
not think there was a truer history writ since the apostles'
days 5. b The violence with which that kingdom did almost
unanimously engage against the administration, may easily
convince one that the provocation must | have been very MS. 14.
great, to draw in such an entire and vehement concurrence
against it 6.

a for which. b And indeed struck out.

1 That Traquair drew the first 4 See infra 104, note,
protestation is clearly erroneous. 5 Compare Napier, Montrose and
Burton, vi. 480. See, however, John the Covenanters, Introd. 20.
Lockhart's letter to Traquair, Nov. 6 The plans above mentioned for
128, 1639. Dalrymple, Memorials and recovering the bishops' lands, and
Letters, ii. 76. purchasing the tithes for the better

2 'Sendingdown good ships would maintenance of the clergy, were, in
do more than sending proclamations.' the opinion of the Earl of Clarendon,
Juan de Maria (a feigned name) to the real grounds of the Scottish re-
an unknown correspondent, April bellion [' by lessening the authority
17, 1638. Id. i. 25. and dependence of the nobility and

3 Published in 1677. See f. 298. great men '], Rebellion,!. 174. ' These

42

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. II. After the first pacification, upon the new disputes that
arose, when a the earls of a Loudoun and Dunfermline l were
sent up with the petition from the Covenanters, the lord
Savile came to them, and informed them of many parti-
culars, by which they saw the king was highly irritated
against them: bhe took great pains to persuade them to
come with their army into England. They very unwillingly
hearkened to that proposition, and looked on it as a design
from the court to ensnare them by making the Scots invade
England, by which this nation might have been provoked
to assist the king to conquer Scotland. It is true, che
hated d the earl of d Strafford so much, that they saw no
1639. cause to suspect him 2 : so they entered into a treaty with
him about it. The lord Savile assured them, he spake to
them in the name of the most considerable men in England :
and he shewed them an engagement under their hands to
join with them, if they would come into England, and refuse
any treaty but what should be confirmed by a parliament
of England. They desired leave to send this paper to
Scotland ; to which, after much seeming difficulty, he con-
28 sented : so a cane was hollowed, and this was put within
it ; and one Frost, afterwards secretary to the committee of
both kingdoms, was sent down with it as a poor traveller.
It was to be communicated only to three persons, the earls
of Rothes and Argyll and to Warriston, the three chief
confidents of the covenanters. The earl of Rothes was

a interlined. b and struck out. c they saw struck out. d interlined.

were the concealed and private
grounds,' says a contemporary
writer; 'the open and avowed causes
were the introduction of our liturgy,
the book of canons, ordination, and
consecration, with the high commis-
sion court, among them ; and it hath
been found since, that those things
were introduced by the cunning of
those discontented spirits, that there-
by there might be some ground to
suscitate the people to rise, which

plot of theirs took effect.' Tract
entitled Bella Scot-Anglica, printed
in 1648, 14. R.

J See infra, 47, 73, 224.

2 November, 1639. Savile was the
son of a former rival of Strafford,
and shared his father's hatred. He
was made a Privy Councillor in 1641,
having been won over by the queen.
Compare Gardiner, ix. 179. He
was created Earl of Sussex, May 25,
1644.

before the Restoration. 43

a man of pleasure, but of a most obliging temper : his CHAP. II.
affairs were low. a Spottiswoode had once made the bargain
between the king and him before the troubles, but the earl
of Traquair broke it, seeing he was to be raised above
himself. The earl of Rothes had all the arts of b making
himself popular ; only there was too much levity in his
temper, and too much liberty in his course of life. The
earl of Argyll was a more solemn sort of a man, grave and
sober, free of all scandalous vices 1, of an invincible calm-
ness of temper, and a pretender to high degrees of piety :
c [but he was a deep dissembler, and great oppressor in all
his private dealings, and he was noted for da defect in his
courage d on all occasions where danger met him. e This
had one of its usual effects on him, for he was cruel in cold
blood :] c he was much set on raising his own family to be
a sort of king in the Highlands.

Warriston was my own uncle 2 : f [but I will not be more
tender in giving his character, for all that nearness in
blood.] f He was a man of great application, could seldom
sleep above three hours in the twenty-four. He had studied
the law carefully, and had a great quickness of thought,
with an extraordinary memory. He went into very high
notions of lengthened devotions, in which he continued
many hours a day. He would often pray in his family two
hours at a time, and had an unexhausted copiousness that
way. « [He was a deep enthusiast, for]g what thought
soever struck his fancy during those effusions, he looked
on it as an answer of prayer, and was wholly determined
by it. He looked on the Covenant as the setting of Christ
on his throne, and so was out of measure zealous in it ;
h [and he had i an unrelenting severity of temper1 against all
that opposed it] h He had no regard to the raising himself

a And struck out. b obliging struck out. c the bracketed passage is
struck out. d substituted for cowardice. e and struck out. f struck out.
B struck out. h struck out. ' substituted for the fury of an inquisitor.

1 As a man is free of a corporation, married respectively the second
he means. S. and third daughters of Sir Thomas

2 Warriston and Burnet's father Craig.

44

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. II. or his family, though he had thirteen children : but pres-
bytery was to him more than all the world. He had
a readiness and vehemence of speaking, that made him
very considerable in public assemblies ; a [but he had no
clear nor settled judgment, yet that was supplied by]a
And he had a fruitful invention, so that he was at all times
furnished with expedients. b [And though he was a very
honest man in his private dealings, yet he could make great
stretches, when the cause seemed to require it.] b To these
three only this paper was to be shewed upon an oath of
secrecy * : and it was to be deposited in Warriston's hands.
They were only allowed to publish to the nation that they
were sure of a very great and unexpected assistance, which,
though it was then to be kept secret, would appear in due
time. This they published : and it was looked on as an
artifice to draw in the nation : but it was afterwards found
to be a cheat indeed, but a cheat of Savile's, who had
forged all these subscriptions.

a struck out.

b struck out.

1 See my note in my printed
copy of Oldmixon's History of the
Stuarts, 145. O. Mr. Gardiner's
note (ix. 179) on Oldmixon's trust-
worthiness in this particular matter
makes a transcription of Onslow's
MS. note (which occurs in his hand-
writing in the copy in the Birming-
ham Free Library) advisable. ' The
author had these letters, as I have
reason to believe, from Mr. Johnston
of Twittenham (Secretary of State
for Scotland to William), who was
son of the Lord Warriston now
mentioned. Mr. Johnston once
showed me some letters that seemed
to be of the handwriting of that age
which he told me related to the sub-
ject that these are upon. A. O. I have
now (Nov. 7, 1742) these letters in
my custody, and had them from the
son of Secretary Johnston. What

authority the writer of these letters
had for the names of the seven lords
now printed I do not know, unless
he took them from an endorsement
in Secretary Johnston's handwriting
on the copy of that letter which I also
have, and the endorsement does
mention these names, and only
them. In the original the subscrip-
tion is cut out, as this author says.
A. O.1 The names in Oldmixon are
the same as those in Gardiner, ex-
cept that the name of Lord Saye and
Sele is substituted for that of Scrope.
Mr. Gardiner, it will be observed
(ix. 179 note), thinks that Burnet's
story refers to earlier negotiations.
See also Welwood's Memoirs, 81,
for an account somewhat different
from that in the text. Welwood had
seenBurnet's previous narrative in the
Lives of the Dukes of Hamilton (1677).

before the Restoration. 45

The Scots marched with a very sorry equipage 1 : every CHAP. II.
soldier carried a week's provision of oatmeal ; and they had
a drove of cattle with them for their food. They had also 29
an invention of guns of white iron, tinned and done about
with leather, and corded : so that they could serve for two
or three discharges. These were light, and were carried on
horses : and when they came to Newburn, the English army August 28,
that defended the ford was surprised with a discharge of l64°'
artillery : some thought it magic, and all | were put in such MS. 15.
disorder, that the whole army did run with aso great a
precipitation, that sir Thomas Fairfax, who had a command
in it, did not stick to own that till he passed the Tees his
legs trembled under him 2. This struck many of the enthu-
siasts of the king's side as much as it exalted the Scots ;
who were next day possessed of Newcastle, and so were
masters, b not only b of Northumberland and the bishopric
of Durham, c but of the coaleries ; by which, if they had
not been in a good understanding with the city of London,
they could have distressed them extremely : but all the use
the city made of this was, to raise a great outcry, and to
complain of the war, since it was now in the power of the
Scots to starve them. Upon that, petitions were sent from
the city and from some counties, to the king, d praying
a treaty with the Scots. The lord Wharton and the lord
Howard of Escrick undertook to deliver some of these ;
which they did, and were clapt up eupon ite3. f A council

a substituted for such. b substituted for both. c substituted for and
so were masters. d substituted for for. e interlined. f And

struck out. .

1 Livingstone states (Wodrow Soc. On the skirmish see Hardwicke St.
Sel. Biog. i. 162) that while lying Papers, ii. 183 ; and Lord Conway's
at Dunse, before the march into Relation concerning the passages in
England, the Scotch army was in the the late Northern Expedition, 1640;
utmost need. Memorials and Letters relating, &c.,

2 Clarendon notes with satisfac- i. 81.

tion (ii. 90) that 'from this infamous 3 Dignity of expression. S. There

defeat at Newburn to the last entire is no evidence for this. Upon

conquest of Scotland by Cromwell, Howard of Escrick, see Clarendon,

the Scots army never performed one v. 17. He was expelled from

signal action against the English.' Parliament and fined £10,000 in

46 A Summary of Affairs

CHAP II. of war was helda; and it was resolved on, as the lord
Wharton told me, to shoot them at the head of the army, as
movers of sedition. This was chiefly pressed by the earl
of Strafford. Duke Hamilton spoke nothing till the council
rose ; and then he asked Strafford, if he was sure of the
army, who seemed surprised at the question : but he upon
inquiry understood that very probably a general mutiny,
if not a total revolt, would have followed, if any such
execution had been attempted. This success of the Scots
ruined the king's affairs. And by b it the necessity of the
union of the two kingdoms may appear c very c evident : for
nothing but a superior army able to beat the Scots can
hinder their doing this at any time: and the seizing the
coaleries must immediately bring the city of London into
great distress. Two armies were now in the north as a load
on the king, besides all the other grievances. The lord
Savile's forgery came to be discovered. The king knew
it ; and yet he was brought afterwards to trust him, and

May 25, to advance him to be earl of Sussex. The king pressed
my uncle to deliver him the letter, who excused himself
upon his oath ; and not knowing what use might be made
of it, he cut out every d subscription, and sent it to the
person for whom it was forged. The imitation was so
exact, that every man, as soon as he saw his hand simply
by itself, acknowledged that he could not have denied it.
so The king was now in great straits : he had laid up seven
hundred thousand pounds before the troubles in Scotland
began ; and yet had raised no guards nor force in Eng-
land, but trusted a very illegal administration e to a legal
execution. His treasure was now exhausted ; his subjects
were highly irritated ; the ministry were all frighted, being
f exposed to the anger and justice of the parliament: so

a upon it struck out. b substituted for this. c interlined.

d substituted for man's hand. e substituted for with. l all

struck out.

1650 for taking a bribe from a delin- of Harrison, 30, American Antiqua-
quent, upon the information of rian Society, April 26, 1893 ; Lud low,
Harrison the regicide. Firth's Life Memoirs, ed. Firth, i. 259.

before the Restoration. 47

that he had brought himself into great distress, but had CHAP. II.
not the dexterity to extricate himself out of it. He loved
high and rough methods, but had neither the skill to
conduct them, nor the height of genius necessary to manage
them. He hated all that offered prudent and moderate
counsels : he thought it flowed from a meanness of spirit,
and a care to preserve themselves by sacrificing his autho-
rity, or from republican principles : and even when he saw
it was necessary to follow such advices, yet he hated those
that gave them. His heart was wholly turned to the
gaining the two armies. a In order to that, he gained
Rothes entirely1, who hoped by the king's mediation to
have married the countess of Devonshire, a rich and
magnificent lady, that lived long in the greatest state
of anyb in that age. He also gained the earl of Mont-
rose, who was a young man well learned, cwho had
travelled d, but had taken upon him the port of a hero
too much, e [and lived as in a romance ;] e for his whole
manner was stately to affectation. When he was beyond
seas, he travelled with the earl of Denbigh, and they
consulted all the astrologers they could hear of2. I plainly
saw the earl of Denbigh relied on what had then been
told him, to his dying day ; and the rather because the
earl of Montrose was promised a glorious fortune for some
time, but all was to be overthrown in conclusion. When
the earl of Montrose returned from his travels, he was
not considered by the king as he thought he deserved :
so he studied to render himself popular in Scotland ; and
being f [vain and] f forward, he was the first and fiercest
man in the opposition they made during the first war.
gHe both advised and drew the letter to the king of
France, for which the lord Loudoun, who signed it, was
imprisoned in the tower of London 3. But the earl of

a and struck out. b lady struck out. c substituted for and.

A much struck out. ° struck out. f struck out. g and struck out.

1 John, fifth earl. He died this 2 Compare infra, 63, 163, and f. 196.

same year, 1641. See Clarendon, 3 This letter, drawn up in the

iii.38,25i; iv. 23. early part of 1640, addressed <au

48

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. II. Lauderdale, as he himself told me, when it came to his
turn to sign that letter, found false French in it ; for
instead of rayon de soleil, he had writ raye de soleil, which
in French signifies a sort of fish ; and so the matter went
no further at that time ; and the treaty came on so soon
after that ait was never again taken up. The earl of
Montrose was gained by the king at Berwick, and under-
took to do great services : b he made the king fancy, that
he could turn the whole kingdom : yet indeed he could
do nothing. He was again trying to make a new party :
and he kept a correspondence with the king when he lay
MS. 16. at Newcastle ; | and was pretending he had a great interest
31 among the covenanters, whereas he had none at all c at
that time.c All these little plottings came to be either
known or at least suspected. The queen was a woman
of great vivacity in conversation, and loved all her life long
to be in intrigues of all sorts, but was not so secret in
them as such times and such affairs required. She was
a woman of no manner of judgment : dshe was bad at
contrivance, but much worse in the execution : but by the
liveliness of her discourse she made always a great im-
pression on the king: and to her little practices, as well
as to the king's own temper, the sequel of all his misfor-
tunes was owing. I know it was a maxim infused into

a substituted for this matter. b for he rather fancied it himself, and had

struck out. c interlined. d substituted for and.

Roy/ and signed by Rothes, Mont-
rose, Mar, Loudoun, &c., was inter-
cepted by Traquair and handed to
Charles, who sent it through the Earl
of Leicester, English ambassador
to France, for Louis XIII to see and
disavow. Loudoun and James Colvill
were committed to the Tower in
April. The reasons of Loudoun's dis-
charge in June, and of the favour
into which he was received (he was
made chancellor and an earl, Sept 30,
1641) are obscure, though Clarendon
(ii. 87) says that it was supposed
that Charles wished thereby to dis-

arm opposition inScotland(w/ra, 224}.
A second letter, dated February 19,
164^, and signed by Argyll, Montrose,
Lothian, &c., but not by Loudoun,
reached Louis safely by the hands
of William Colvill, and is in the
Bibliotheque Nationale Fr. 15,915,
fol. 410. See Hamilton's Pref. to
Cal. of S. P. 1639-40, xii; Clarendon,
ii. 60 note; Gardiner, ix. 97; Burnet,
Memoirs of the Dukes of Hamilton,
160, 161. See also William Colvill's
letter to Balmerino, Memorials and
Letters, &c., ed. David Dalrymple,
i. 57, 60.

before the Restoration. 49

his sons, which I have often heard from king James, that CHAP. II.
he was undone by his concessions. This is true in some
respect: for his passing the act that the parliament should
sit during pleasure, was indeed his ruin, which he was
drawn to by the queen 1. But if he had not made great
concessions a, he had sunk without being able to make
a struggle for it 2 ; and could not have divided the nation,
or engaged so many to have stood by him : since by the
concessions that he made, especially that of the triennial
parliament, the honest and quiet part of the nation was
satisfied, and thought their religion and liberties were
secured : so they broke off from those violenter propo-
sitions that occasioned the war.

bThe truth was, the king did not come into those con-
cessions seasonably, nor with a good grace : c all appeared
to be extorted from him. There were also grounds,
whether true or plausible, to make it to be believed that
he intended not to stand to them longer than as he lay
under that force that visibly drew them from him contrary
to his own inclinations. dThe proofs that appeared of
some particulars, ethat made this seem true6, made other
things that were only whispered to be more readily be-
lieved : for in all critical times there are deceitful people
of both sides, that pretend to merit by making discoveries,
on condition that no use shall be made of them as
witnesses ; which is one of the most pestiferous ways
of calumny possible. Almost the f whole f court had
been concerned in one illegal grant or another : so these
courtiers, to get their faults passed over, were as so many

& in other matters struck out. b But struck out. c so that struck

out. d and struck out. e interlined. f interlined.

1 There is no evidence to sustain such a strait, that I do not know
this. how he will possibly avoid (without

2 In a letter of the Earl of North- endangering the loss of the whole
umberland (printed among the kingdom) the giving way to the re-
Sydney papers, ii. 663) to the move of divers persons, as well as
Earl of Leicester, and dated Nov. other things, that will be demanded
13, 1640, he says, ' the king is in by the parliament.' O.

VOL. I. E

5°

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. II. spies upon the king and queen : they a told all they heard,
and perhaps not without large additions, to the leading
men in the house of commons. This inflamed the jealousy,
and put them on to the making still new demands. One
eminent passage was told me by the lord Holies :

The earl of StrafTord had married his sister 1 : so, though
b in that parliament b he was one of the hottest men of the
party, yet when that matter was before them he always
32 withdrew. When the bill of attainder was passed, the king
sent for him to know what he could do to save the earl
of Strafford. Holies answered, that if the king pleased,
since the execution of the law was in him c, he might
legally grant him a reprieve, which must be good in law ;
but he would not advise it. That which he proposed was.
that Strafford should send him a petition for a short
respite, to settle his affairs, and to prepare for death ;
upon which he 2 advised the king to come next day with
the petition d in his hand d, and lay it before the two houses,
with a speech which he drew efor the king6; and f Holies
said g to him g, he would try his interest among his friends
to get them to consent to it. He prepared a great many
by assuring them, that if they would save lord Strafford,
he would become wholly theirs, in consequence of his first
principles : and that he might do them much more service
by being preserved, than he could do, if made an example
of upon such new and doubtful points. In this he had
wrought on so many, that he believed b if the king's party
had struck into it, he might have saved him. It1 was
carried to the queen, as if Holies had engaged that the
earl of Strafford would accuse her, and discover all he

a substituted for and. b substituted for at first. c substituted

for the king. d interlined. e interlined. f then struck out.

g interlined. h that struck out. * substituted for this.

1 Strafford married, as his second
wife, Arabella Holies, younger
daughter of Lord Clare, in Feb. 1624.
His first wife was Margaret Clifford,

eldest daughter of Francis, Earl of
Cumberland. She died in 1622.
2 Sc. Strafford.

before the Restoration.

knew : so the queen not only diverted the king from going CHAP. 1 1.
to the parliament, changing the speech into a message all
writ with the king's own hand, and sent to the house of
lords by the prince of Wales : which Holies said, would
have perhaps done as well, the king being apt to spoil
things by an unacceptable manner: but to the wonder
of the whole world, the queen prevailed with him to add
that mean postscript, If he must die^ it were charity to
reprieve him to Saturday : which was a very unhandsome
giving up of the whole message l. a When it was commu-
nicated to both houses, the whole court party were plainly
against it: and so he fell, truly by the queen's means2. May. 1641.

a and struck out.

1 Burnet's story is opposed to
every other authority. That Holies
tried to save Strafford is confirmed
by Laud. But Laud states the
nature of the proposed arrangement
differently, and says that the scheme
was frustrated by Stafford's refusal
to listen to it. Laud's Works,
Library of Anglo-Catholic Theology,
iii. 442. Laud further says, that
after the passing of the Attainder
Bill, Strafford made by his friends
two suits to the king (t'btd.}. One
was that his death might be respited
till the Saturday, that he might have
a little time to settle his estate. This
evidently suggested the postscript.
In the explanation of the letter which
the king gave to the Lords he says
that he asked for a respite ' on cer-
tain information that his estate was
so distracted that it necessarily re-
quired a few days for settlement'
(Lords' Journals, iv. 245). On the
other hand, there is no trace of a
petition for reprieve in the Journals,
with which indeed the king's post-
script and explanation would have
been incompatible, though the fact
of there being no such petition is
consistent with Laud's statement,

and with that of Burnet that such
a petition was proposed to be made
to the king. If this explanation be
true, Burnet's statement that the
postscript was added at the queen's
suggestion — which is unconfirmed
by other evidence — cannot be correct.
Perhaps Burnet has mixed up some
of the various expedients put forward
to save Strafford's life. It is very
likely that Holies misrepresented the
queen's attitude. Strafford's sugges-
tions to the king for his behaviour
' when the Bill of Attainder is pre-
sented to him for the Royal assent '
may be read in the Camden Miscel-
lany for 1894, with an introduction by
Mr. Firth (to whom the substance of
this note is due). The letter of the
king to the Lords (sent, as Burnet
says, by the Prince of Wales), with
its numerous erasures, seems to have
been an expedient adopted at the last
moment, not in pursuance of a scheme
deliberately selected at the first. See
the letter in the H. M. C. Report, i. 10.
2 Carte (Bodleian MSS.) says,
that when Cardinal Richelieu heard
of the king's consenting to Lord
Strafford's death, he observed that
the king had cut off the only head

E 2

52

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. II. The mentioning this makes me add one particular con-
""^ cerning archbishop Laud : when his impeachment was
brought to the lords' bar, he, apprehending how it would
end, sent over Warner, bishop of Rochester, with the keys
of his closet and cabinets, that he might destroy, or put
out of the way. all papers that might either hurt himself
or any body else. He was at that work for three hours,

MS. 17. till, upon | Laud's being committed to the black rod, a
messenger went over to seal up his closet, who came after
all was withdrawn. Among the writings a which he took
away, it is believed the original Magna Carta *, passed by
king John in the mead near Staines, was one. b This was
33 found among his papers by his executor, Dr. Lee : and
that descended to his son and executor, colonel Lee, who
gave it to me. So it is now in my hands; and it came
very fairly to me 2. c For this conveyance of it we have
nothing but conjecture.

substituted for papers.

b but struck out.

and struck out.

in the nation that could secure his
own from the like fate. R. Mazarin
also pointed to this as a fatal conces-
sion to popular demands.

1 The term ' the original Magna
Carta' is misleading, unless indeed
Burnet means to distinguish between
John's charter and later ones. The
document was not signed by King
John, but copies were prepared and
sealed in the Chancery in the usual
way, and one was sent to every
cathedral town. There are at present
five extant, of which that mentioned
in the text, and now in the British
Museum (Add. MSS. 4838), is one.
It has been printed by the authorities
with the following note : ; The docu-
ment was formerly in the possession
of Gilbert Burnet, Bishop of Salis-
bury, and had previously been in the
hands of John Warner, Bishop of
Rochester, who is supposed to have
taken charge of it,together with Arch-

bishop Laud's papers, at the impeach-
ment of the latter in 1640. When
Blackstone published his work The
Great Charter and Charter of the
Forest, Oxford, 1759, it was in the
possession of David Mitchell, the
executor of Sir Thomas Burnet, the
bishop's son ; and, ten years later,
in 1769, it was presented by Philip,
second Earl Stanhope, to the British
Museum.'

2 There was reason enough for
the bishop's giving an account how
he came by this most valuable piece
of antiquity : his having been trusted
(especially after his publication of
the History of the Reformation) in
searching all records, private and
public, gave good grounds to sus-
pect he had obtained it in a less
justifiable manner. D. The follow-
ing remarkable article in relation to
our Magna Carta is in the remarks
of M. des Maizeaux upon the Colo-

before the Restoration. 53

CHAPTER III.

TO THE DEATH OF CHARLES I.

I DO not intend to prosecute the history of the wars.
I have told a great deal relating to them in the Memoirs
of the dukes of Hamilton. Rushworth's collections contain
many excellent materials : and now the first volume of
the earl of Clarendon's history gives a faithful representation i7°2-
of the beginnings of the troubles, a though writ in favour
of the court, and full of the best excuses that such ill
things were capable ofb. I shall therefore only set out
what I had particular reason to know, and that is not
to be met with in books.

The kirk was now settled in Scotland with a new
mixture of ruling elders, which, though they were taken
from the Geneva pattern, to assist, or rather to be a check
on, the minister in the managing the parochial discipline,
yet c these c never came to their assemblies till the year
1638, that they thought it necessary to make them first go
and carry all the elections of the ministers d at the several
presbyteries, and next come themselves and sit in the
assembly*1. e The nobility and chief gentry offered them-
selves upon that occasion : and the ministers, f since they
saw they g were like to s act in opposition to the king's
orders, were glad to have so great a support. But the
elders that now came to assist them, beginning to take, as
the ministers thought, too much on them, they grew weary

ft which struck out. b yet is indeed a noble work struck out. c interlined.
d interlined. e and struck out. f finding that struck out. * substituted
for would.

misiana of Monsieur du Colomies, d'Angleterre en original avec les

p. 538 of the Amsterdam edition in seings et tous les sceatix. II cut

1740: 'J'ai oui dire que le chevalier pour quatre sous cette rare piece,

Robert Cotton etant alle chez un qu'on avoit cru si long terns perdue,

tailleur, trouva qu'il alloit faire des et qu'on n'esperoit pas de pouvoir

mesures de la Grande Chartre jamais retrouver.' Cole.

54 A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. III. of such imperious masters : so they studied to work up the
a inferior a people to much zeal : and as they wrought any
up to some measure of heat b and knowledge, they brought
them into their eldership ; and so got a majority of hot
zealots who depended on them. c One out of these was
deputed to attend on the judicatories. They had synods
of all the clergy, in one or more counties, who met twice
a year : and a general assembly that met once a year :
and d at parting e that body e named some, called the
I Commission of the Kirk, who were to sit in the intervals,
1 to prepare matters for the next assembly, and to look to
all the concerns of the church, to give warning of dangers,
and to inspect all the proceedings of the state, as far as
they related to the matters of religion : f by these means
they became terrible to all their enemies. In their ser-
mons, and chiefly in their prayers, all that passed in the
state was canvassed : men were as good as named, and
either recommended or complained of to God as they were
acceptable or odious to them. This grew g up in time g to
an insufferable degree of boldness. b The way that was
given to it, when the king and the bishops were their com-
34 mon themes, made that afterwards the humour could not
be restrained when it grew so petulant that the pulpit was
a scene of noise and passion. i For some years this was
managed with k great appearances of fervour by men of
age and some authority : but when the younger and hotter
zealots took it up, it became odious to almost all sorts of
people, except some sour enthusiasts, who thought all * their
impertinence ! was zeal, and an effect of inspiration ; which
flowed naturally from the conceit of extemporary prayers
being praying by the Spirit1.

a interlined. b substituted for zeal. c and struck out. d these

struck out. e interlined f and struck out. % interlined. h and
struck out. ' Yet struck out. k such struck out. * interlined.

1 Compare with this account the written just after the battle of
impressions of an observant and well- Dunbar : ' Instead of having no God
educated soldier in Cromwell's army but one, the generality of people do

before the Restoration. 55

Henderson, a minister of Edinburgh, was by much the CHAP. III.
wisest and gravest of them all : but as all his performances
that I have seen are flat and heavy, so he found it was an
easier thing to raise a flame than to quench it. a He studied
to keep his party to him, yet he found he could not
moderate the heat of some fiery spirits : so when he saw
he could follow them no more, but that they had got the
people out of his hands, he sunk both in body and mind,
and died soon after the papers had passed between the
king and him at Newcastle 1. The person next him was
Douglas, believed to be descended from the royal family,
though the wrong way : for he was, b as was said b, the
bastard of a bastard of queen Mary of Scotland, by a child
that she secretly bare to Douglas, who was half brother to
the earl of Murray, the regent, and had the keeping of her
in the castle of Lochleven trusted to him ; from whence he
helped to make her escape on that consideration. There
was an air of greatness in Douglas, that made all that saw
him inclined enough to believe he was of no ordinary
descent. He was a reserved man : he had the Scriptures
by heart, to the exactness of a Jew ; for he was as a con-
cordance : he was too calm and grave for the furious men,

a But tho struck out. b interlined.

idolize and set up their ministers, ever the Church of Scotland did
believing what they say, though enjoy.' Baillie, iii. 12. He died at
never so contrary to religion and Edinburgh, August 19, 1646. Royal-
reason, and they stand more in awe ists like Clarendon ascribe his death
of them than a school boy does of to remorse for the evil he had caused,
his master : ' and again, ' The Pres- or, like Barwick, to shame at his
by teriall government with the several defeat in argument at Newcastle by
formes, rights, and practices of it is Charles I ; while earnest Presbyte-
the graven image which they have rians lay it to his ' displeasure at the
set up.' Charles II and Scotland in king's ways ' and to vexation at the
1650, ed. Gardiner, Scottish Hist. Soc. failure of the Westminster Assembly
137. See also, for another impres- to establish Presbyterianism in the
sion of Scotland and the Scotch (in full Scotch sense. See Baillie, ii.
1672), the Portland MSS., vol. iii. 398, 399; Hetherington's Hist, of
H. M. C. Rep. xiv. App. ii. 327. the Westminster Assembly : and, for
1 'The fairest ornament, after John the Newcastle controversy, H. M. C.
Knox of incomparable memory, that Report, iii. 88.

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. ill. but yet he was much depended on for his prudence. I knew
him in his old age : and saw plainly he was a slave to his
popularity, and durst not own the free thoughts he had of
some things for fear of offending the people \

I will not run out in giving the characters of the other

MS. 18. leading preachers among them, such | as Dickson, Blair,
Rutherford, Baillie, Cant, and the two Gillespies2. They
were men all of a sort : affected great sublimities in de-
votion : they poured themselves out in their prayers with
a loud a voice, and often with many tears. They had but
an ordinary proportion of learning among them ; something
of Hebrew, very little Greek : books of controversy with the
Papists, but above all with the Arminians, was the height
of their study. A dull way of preaching by doctrine,
reason, and use, was that they set up on : and some of them
affected a strain of stating cases of conscience, not with
relation to moral actions, but to some reflexions on their
condition b and temper, c that was occasioned chiefly by
their conceit of praying by the Spirit, which every one
could not attain to, or keep up to the same heat in it at all

substituted for roaring.

substituted for state.

substituted for which.

1 The father of Robert Douglas
was an illegitimate son of Sir George
Douglas of Lochleven, who aided
Mary in her escape, the brother of
William Douglas, sixth Earl of
Morton. This descent of Douglas
is denied, in a note to the Introd.
to Crookshank's Hist. Church of Scot-
land, but no authority is given. That
Mary was his father's mother is im-
possible. She could not have borne
a child after her escape without the
fact being well known. Douglas
had been chaplain of the Scots troop
in the service of Gustavus Adolphus.
Burton, vii. 286. He was a leader
of the Resolutioners ; refused the
bishopric of Edinburgh in 1660 ; was
' deprived ' in 1662 ; ' indulged ' in

1669 ; and died in 1674. As com-
missioner, with James Sharp, to
Charles II at the Restoration, he
was completely hoodwinked by his
colleague. Lauderdale Papers (Cam-
den Soc.), vol. i. 36, &c.

2 Dickson, minister of Ruther-
glen ; Blair, minister of St. Andrews ;
Rutherford, author of Lex Rex
(Scottish Divines, St. Giles's Lectures,
3rd series ; Howie's Scots Worthies,
ed. Carslaw, 233) ; Baillie, of the
Letters and Journals ; Cant, minister
of Aberdeen. See Life of Living-
stone, i. 305, 311 (Wodrow Soc., Sel.
Biog.}. Patrick Gillespie was prin-
cipal of Glasgow College ; George
Gillespie, minister of Wemyss and
Edinburgh.

before the Restoration. 57

times. a The learning they recommended to their young CHAP. in.
divines was some German systems, some commentators on
the Scripture, books of controversy, and practical books. 35
b They were so careful to oblige them to make their round
in these, that if they had no men of great learning among
them, yet none were very ignorant : as if they had thought
an equality in learning was necessary to keep up the parity
of their government. None could be suffered to preach as
expectants, as they called them c, but after a trial or two in
private before the ministers alone : then two or three ser-
mons were to be preached in public, some more learnedly,
some more practically : then a head in divinity was to be
commonplaced in Latin., and the person was to maintain
theses upon it : he was to be also tried in Greek and
Hebrew, and in Scripture chronology. dThe questionary
trial came last ; every minister asking such questions as he
pleased. When any6 had passed through all these with
approbation, which was done in a course of three or four
months, he was allowed to preach when invited, and- if
he was presented or called to a church, he was to pass
through f a new set of the same trials1. This made that
there was a small circle of knowledge in which they were
generally well instructed. True morality was little studied
or esteemed by them. They were generally proud and
passionate, insolent and covetous ; yet they took much pains
among their people to maintain their authority8. They
affected all the ways of familiarity h that were like to gain
on themh: even in sacred matters they got into a set of
very indecent phrases.

• All struck out. b Yet struck out. c that is,proposants, interlined. d and
struck out. e the person struck out. ' substituted for over. g among
them struck out. h interlined.

1 See especially, for a good in- ford Club. Burnet himself passed his

stance, the account of the trials of trials for Saltoun in Nov. and Dec.

James Sharp, when presented by 1664 ; was inducted Jan. 29, 1665 ;

Crawford to the Sand Kirk of Craill, instituted June 15, 1665 ; approved

before the Presbytery of St. Andrews, Julys, 1 666.
Nov. 3, 1647 — June 27, 1648. Abbots-

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. III. They forced all people to sign the covenant l : and the
greatest part of the episcopal clergy, among whom there
were two a bishops, came to them, and renounced their
former principles, and desired to be received into their
body. At first they received all that offered themselves :
but afterwards they repented of this, and the violent men
among them were ever pressing the purging the Kirk, as
they called it, that is, the ejecting all the episcopal clergy.
Then they took up the wicked term of malignant s, by which
all who differed from them were distinguished : butb the
strictness of piety and good life, which had gained them so
much reputation before the war, began to wear off; and
instead of that, a fierceness of temper, and a copiousness of
many long sermons, and much longer prayers, came to be
the distinction of the party. This they carried even to the
saying grace before and after meat sometimes to the length
of a whole hour. But c as every new war broke out c, there
was a visible abatement of even the outward shews of piety.
Thus the war corrupted both sides. When the war broke
out in England, the Scots had a great mind to go into it.
The decayed nobility, the military men, and the ministers,
were violently set on it. They saw what good quarters
they had in the north of England ; and they hoped the
umpirage of the war would fall into their hands. The
division appearing so near an equality in England, they
36 reckoned they should d turn the scales, and so be courted
of both sides : and they did not doubt to draw great
advantages from it, both for the nation in general and

a or three struck out.
c altered from at every new opening.

b all struck out.
d altered from would.

1 See the striking letter of remon-
strance against the intolerance of the
Covenanters from Burnet's father
(who had himself taken the Covenant,
Lockhart Papers, \. 597) to his brother-
in-law Warriston, written about 1639,
in Memorials and Letters relating, e/c.,
ii. 72 : ' Who will rather have all the

three kingdoms destroyed, and every-
one weltering in another's blood,
before you get not your will. God for-
give your bloody and cruel preachers
who have not known, nor will not
know, the way of peace.' See also
Drumtnond's Irene', Masson, Drum-
mond of Hawthornden, 273 et seq.

before the Restoration. 59

themselves in particular. Duke Hamilton was trusted by CHAP. III.
the king with the management of his affairs in that king-
dom1, and had powers to offer, (but so secretly that if
discovered it could not be proved, for fear of disgusting the
English), that if they would engage in the king's side
he a would consent to a the uniting Northumberland, Cum-
berland, and Westmorland, to Scotland2, and that Newcastle
should be the seat of the government; that the prince of
Wales should hold his court always among them ; that every
third year the king should go among them ; and every
office in the king's household should in the third turn be
given to a Scotchman. This I found not among duke
Hamilton's papers, but the earl of Lauderdale assured me
of it, and that at the Isle of Wight they had all the engage-
ments from the king to make it good upon their success
that he could then give 3. Duke Hamilton quickly saw it
was a vain imagination to hope that kingdom could be
brought to espouse the king's quarrel ; the inclination ran
b strong the other way : c all | he hoped to succeed in was MS. 19.
to keep them neuter for some time : and this he saw could
not hold long : so after he had kept off their engaging

a substituted for might offer. b so struck out. c so struck out.

1 He was a kinsman of the king, their assistance with a promise to
being descended from a daughter of reward so great a service with the
James II of Scotland. four northern counties,' &c.

2 See L^idlow's Memoirs, i. 19 : 3 See this document, dated Caris-
' The Scots army [in 1641] was also brooke, Dec. 26, 1647 (erased), and
tried, and the four northern counties sealed with Charles's signet, printed
offered to be given to them in case in the Lauderdale Papers, Camden
they will undertake the same design Soc. i. 2. There is, however, of
[the dissolution of the Parliament].' course nothing in it about uniting
The charge of offering the northern the northern counties to Scotland. It
counties to the Scots was made was drawn up solely in favour of the
also against the Parliament by the Scotch nobles, and contains not a
Royalists. Lives of the Duke and word upon Church matters. Gardiner,
Duchess of Newcastle, Preface, Ixii (ed. Great Civil War, iii. 272-275, and
Firth) : < A very considerable thing I especially Constitutional Documents
have heard . . . that the rebellious of the Puritan Revolution, 264, and
Parliament did call the Scots to 265 note.

6o

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. in. with England all the year 1643, he and his friends saw it
was in vain to struggle any longer. The course they all
resolved on was, that the nobility should fall in a heartily
with the inclinations of the nation to join with England,
that they might b procure to themselves and their friends
the chief commands in the army : and then when they were
in England, and that their army was as a distinct body
separated from the rest of the kingdom, it might be much
easier to gain them to the king's service than it was at that
time to work on the whole nation 1.

This was not a very sincere way of proceeding, but it
was intended for the king's service, and would very probably
have had the effect designed by it if some accidents had
not happened that changed the face of affairs, which are
not rightly understood : and therefore I will open them

a so struck out.

b substituted for should.

1 Compare Clarendon, Rebellion,
vii. 379-387 ; and Dr. Hickes's de-
claration attested in Carte's MSS.,
that he had read a copy, shown
him by the Duke of Lauderdale, of
Burnet's Memoirs of the two Dukes
of Hamilton, all in the bishop's hand-
writing, in which he imputes to
them and their counsels all the
miseries of Scotland, and the ruin of
the king's affairs in that country.
[No such statement appears in the
published work, 1677. But in the
Preface Burnet refers to the fact
that there was an earlier copy, un-
printed, and that the book was re-
written by Sir R. Moray's advice.]
As to the dark affair named the
Incident, professedly left unexplained
by Burnet, and which has occasioned
reflections to be thrown on the king
by some writers, because Hamilton,
with his brother and the Earl of
Argyll, quitted the king's court at
Edinburgh in the year 1641, the
several parties concerned seem at the

time to have agreed not to disclose
to the public aJl the circumstances
relating to it. And it now appears,
from one of Sir Edward Nicholas's
letters to the king, Evelyn's Memoirs,
[Bray's ed. ii. 59], that the lords
of the privy-council in England,
having read the examinations con-
cerning this affair, * as they had re-
ceived no command to publish them,
contented themselves with declaring
to such, as should converse with
them about them, that they found
nothing in all those examinations that
in any sort reflected on his majesty's
honour.' The king in the margin of
the letter has written, that ' they
neede to doe no more, but as they
have, and resolve to doe.' R. Com-
pare Burton, vii. 151, and Gardiner,
x. 26, where the ' Incident ' is de-
tailed as minutely as the evidence
will allow. See also Hardwicke State
Papers, ii. 299 ; Rushworth, v. 421 ;
Baillie, i. 392.

before the Restoration. 61

clearly. The earl of Montrose and a party of high royalists CHAP. III.
were for entering into an open breach with the country in
the beginning of the year 1643, but offered no probable
methods of managing it ; nor could they reckon themselves
assured of any considerable party 1. They were full of big
words and bold undertakings : but when they were pressed
to shew what concurrence might be depended on, nothing
was offered but from the Highlanders : and on this wise
men could not rely : so duke Hamilton would not expose
the king's affairs by such a desperate way of proceeding.
Upon this they went to Oxford, and filled all people there 37
with complaints of the treachery of the Hamiltons ; and l643-
they pretended they could have secured Scotland if their
propositions had been entertained. This was abut too a
suitable to the king's own inclinations, and to the humour
that was then prevailing at Oxford. So when the two
Hamiltons came up, they were not admitted to speak with
the king : and it was believed if the younger brother had
not made his escape that both would have suffered ; for
when the queen heard of his escape, she with great com-
motion said, ' Abercorn has missed a dukedom ' ; for that
earl was a papist, and next to the two brothers 2. They
could have demonstrated, b if heard b, that they were sure of
above two parts in three of the officers of the army ; and

a substituted for more. b to the king struck out, and if heard interlined.

1 See Mr. Gardiner's comparison retirement,) where he surprised the
of the two policies, Great Civil War, queen in great familiarities with
i. 147, where he distinctly favours Harry Jermyn ; after which she
that of Montrose under the circum- never durst refuse the duke any thing
stances. Cf. Evelyn's Memoirs, App. he desired of her. This, Sir Francis
82, note. Compton told me, he had from his

2 Before the civil war the queen mother^the Countess of Northampton,
had a very particular aversion to who was very intimately acquainted
Duke Hamilton, which he perceiving, with Mrs. Seymour, that was after-
prevailed with Mrs. Seymour, who wards drowned in shooting London
attended upon her in her bed- Bridge. D. See the frank ex-
chamber, to let him into the queen's pression of the queen's relations
private apartment at Somerset with Jermyn in CaL St. P. Dom.
House, (the usual place for her 1660-1, 179.

62

A Summary of Affairs

May 6,
1644 , ?).

CHAP. in. did not doubt to have engaged the army into the king's
cause. But the failing in this was not all. The earl, then
made marquis of Montrose, had powers given him such as
he desired, and was sent down with them : but he could do
nothing a till b the end of the year. A great body of the
Macdonalds, commanded byone Collkitoch [i.e. Colquhitto]1
came over from Ireland to recover Cantyre, the best country
of all the Highlands, out of which they had been driven by
Argyll's family, who had possessed their country about fifty
years. The head of these was the earl of Antrim 2, who
had married the duke of Buckingham's widow : and being
a papist, and having a great command in Ulster, was much
relied on by the queen. He was the main person in the
first rebellion c, and was the most engaged in the bloodshed
d of any in the north : yet he continued to correspond with
the queen to the great prejudice of the e king's affairs 3.
When the marquis of Montrose heard they were in Argyll-
shire, he went to them, and told them, if they would let
him lead them he would carry them into the heart of the
kingdom, and procure them f better quarters and good pay:
so he led them down into Perthshire. The Scots had at
that time an army in England, and another in Ireland : yet
they did not think it necessary to call home any part of
either ; but, despising the Irish and the Highlanders, they
raised a tumultuary army, and put it under the command
of some lords noted for want of courage4, and of others who

ft at first struck out. b in struck out.

d there struck out. e substituted for queen's.

c there struck out.
f substituted for good.

1 Coll Keitache, or Colkitto, ' the
man who could fight with either
hand,' was father of Alexander Mac-
donald, who commanded the Irish
Macdonalds. Napier, Montrose and
the Covenanters, ii. 289, note.

2 See 67. Upon the character of
Randal Macdonell (or Macdonald),
Earl and Marquis of Antrim, his
career, and negotiations with Mont-

rose, see Clarendon, viii. 264-278,
and Carte's Ormond, iv. 154.

3 Carte states (Ormond,iv. 155-185)
that during the negotiation with the
Marquis of Antrim for sending troops
to serve the king in Scotland, he had
several letters from the queen en-
couraging him to proceed in the
affair, and urging despatch. R.

* sc. Argyll and Elcho.

before the Restoration. 63

wished well to the other side. The marquis of Montrose's CHAP. in.
men were desperate, and met with a feeble resistance : so
that small body of the covenanters' army was routed ]. And 1644 5.
here Montrose got horses and ammunition, having but three
horses before, and powder only for one charge. a Then he
became considerable: b and he marched through the northern
parts by Aberdeen. The marquis of Huntly was in the
king's interests ; but he would not join with him, though
his sons did 2. c Astrology ruined him : he believed the 38
stars, and they deceived him 3 : he said often, that neither
the king, nor the Hamiltons, nor Montrose would prosper :
he believed he should outlive them all, and escape at last ;
d as it happened in conclusion as to his outliving the others d.
He was naturally a gallant man : but the stars had so
subdued him, that he made a poor figure during the whole
course of the wars 4.

a substituted for And now. b he broke into Dundee, but was beaten out ;
struck out. c But struck out. d interlined.

1 This refers to the first victory,
that over Elcho at Tippermuir, Sept.
I, 1644. Five more battles were
won by Montrose before the over-
throw at Philiphaugh, Sept. 13, 1645.

2 For the great power possessed
by Huntly, see Burton, vi. 512, &c.

8 Cf. 47, 172, and f. 196.

4 ' For my own part, I am in your
power, and resolved not to leave
that foul title of traitor as an in-
heritance to my posterity. You may
take my head from my shoulders,
but not my heart from my sovereign.'
The Marquess of Huntley his Reply
(to the Covenanters) &c.. Lond. 1640.
It is but justice to the Romanists of
this country to add, that this chief of
the house of Gordon was a Roman
Catholic; the laity of which com-
munion was for the most part more
loyally affected to the crown, than
appears to have been agreeable to

the then policy of the court of Rome.
For it is well known, that in the
beginning of the Scottish rebellion,
when the Roman- Catholic gentry
contributed money in aid of the
king's necessities, they were repre-
hended for their conduct by the
papal nuntio. A copy of the Ad-
monition, in which this reprehension
is contained, may be seen amongst
the Sheldon MSS. (Bodl.). R. By
the ' nuntio ' mentioned in this note
must be meant the Pope's agent at
the English Court, a Scotchman
named Con, usually known by the
Italianized name Cuneo, who re-
mained in England from the summer
of 1636 to the autumn of 1639. His
immediate mission was to obtain a
modification of the oath of allegiance
imposed by James I. Ranke, ii. 40,
41, 150 ; v. 450 ; Gardiner, viii. 138,
236-244 ; ix. 87. Lingard, x. 6-9.

64 A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. III. The marquis of Montrose's success was very mischievous,
and proved the ruin of the king's affairs : on which I should
not have depended entirely if I had had this only from the
earl of Lauderdale1, who was indeed my first author, but it
was fully confirmed by the lord Holies2 a, who had gone in
with great heat into the beginnings of the war : but he soon
saw the ill consequences it already had, and the worse that
were like to grow with the progress of the war. He had
in the beginning of the year 43, when he was sent to Oxford
with the propositions, taken great pains on all about the
king to convince them of the necessity of their yielding in
time, since the longer they stood out the conditions would
be harder : and when he was sent by the parliament, in the
end of the year 44, with other propositions, he andWhitelocke
Dec. 1644. entered into secret conferences with the king, of which
some account is given by Whitelocke in his Memoirs 3. They,
with other commissioners that were sent to Oxford, pos-
sessed the king, and all that were in b great credit with him,
with this, that it was absolutely necessary the king should
put an end to the war by a treaty : a new party c of hot
men c was springing up, that were plainly for changing the
government : they were growing much in the army, but

MS. 20. were yet far from carrying any thing in the House : | they
had gained much strength this summer, and they might
make a great progress by the accidents that another year
might produce : the Scottish army was entirely in the
interests of those who wished for a peace. They confessed
there were many things hard to be digested, that must be
done in order to a peace : they asked things that were

* the following lines are here struck out: and further by what I find in
WhitlocKs Memoirs. In the end of the year 1644 Hollis and Whitlock [with
other commissioners, &c. as 14 lines lower down, the intervening passage
being added on the opposite page]. b substituted for most. c interlined.

1 i.e. the second earl, a bitter 3 This was in December, 1644.
enemy of Montrose. See Mr. Firth's article on Holies in

2 Also a bad authority, as a strong the Diet. Nat. Biog., and Whitelocke,
Presbyterian. i. 336.

before the Restoration. 65

unreasonable : but they were forced to consent to those CHAP. III.
demands, otherwise they would have lost their credit with
the city and the people ; the absence of the courts and the
progress of the war had inflamed the people, who could not
be satisfied without a very entire security and a full satisfac-
tion : but the extremity to which matters might be carried
otherwise made it necessary to come to a peace on any
terms whatsoever, since no terms could be so bad as the
continuance of the war : the king must trust them, though
they were not at that time disposed to trust him so much
as were to be wished. They said farther, that if a peace
should follow, it would be a much easier thing to get any
hard laws now moved for to be repealed, than it was now
to hinder their being insisted on. With these things Holies 39
told me that the king and many of his counsellors, who saw
how his affairs declined, and with what difficulty they could
hope to continue the war another year, were satisfied. The
king more particularly began to feel the insolence of the
military men, and of those who were daily reproaching
him with their services ; so that a they were become as
uneasy to him as those of Westminster had been formerly.
Holies told me he left Oxford not doubting but a peace
would have followed b. But c some came up in the
interval from Montrose with such an account of what he
had done, of the strength he had, and of his hopes next
summer, that the king was by that prevailed on to d believe
his affairs would mend, and that he might afterwards treat
on better terms. This unhappily wrought so far, that the
limitations he put on those whom he sent to treat at Ux- Jan. i64|.
bridge made the whole design miscarry. That raised the
spirits of those that were already but too much exasperated.
The marquis of Montrose made a great progress the next
year : but he laid no lasting foundation, for he did not
make himself master of the strong places or passes of the

kingdom. After his last and greatest victory at Kilsyth, he Aug. 15,

1645-

ft he thought struck out. b at the treaty then agreed to be held at

Uxbridge struck out. c unhappily struck out. d substituted for hope.

VOL. I. F

66

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. III. was lifted up out of measure. The Macdonalds were every
where fierce masters and ravenous plunderers : and the other
Highlanders, who did not such military execution, yet
were good at robbing : and when they had got as much as
they could carry home on their backs, they deserted. The
Macdonalds also left him to go and execute their revenge
on Argyll's country. Montrose thought he was now master,
but had no scheme how to fix his conquests : he wasted
the estates of his enemies, chiefly the Hamiltons 1 ; and
went towards the borders of England, though he had but
a small force left about him : but he thought his name
carried terror with it. So he writ to the king, that he had
gone over the land from Dan to Beersheba : he prayed the
king to come down in these words, Come thou, and take the
city, lest I take it> and it be called by my name. This letter
was writ, but never sent ; for he was routed, and his papers
taken, before he had despatched the courier 2. [a In his
defeat, he took too much care of himself; for he was never
willing to expose himself much a.] When his papers were
taken, many letters of the king, and of others at Oxford, to
him were found, as the earl of Crawford, one appointed to
read them, told me ; which increased the disgust : but
these were not published. b Upon this occasion the marquis
of Argyll and the preachers shewed a very bloody temper ;
many prisoners that had quarters given them were murdered
in cold blood 3 : and as they sent them to some towns that

8 struck out. b Only struck out.

Feb. 3,
1645.

1 Gardiner, Great Civil War, ii.
327, &c. There appears to be no
evidence for the wasting of the Ha-
milton's lands mentioned in the text.

2 This letter is given at length
in Welwood's Memoirs, 65, which
Burnet had probably read (cf. f. 613,
note). It was written on Feb. 3,
1645, the day after the battle of In-
verlochy. Between that date and the
defeat at Philiphaugh, Montrose won
the victories of Auldearn, Alford,
and Kilsyth. The letter apparently

reached the king ; Gardiner, Great
Civil War, ii. 105 ; Napier, Montrose
and the Covenanters, ii. 395, and note.
The suggestion which occurs in the
1823 edition, but which Burnet struck
out in his own copy for the Press,
that Montrose showed a lack of per-
sonal courage at Philiphaugh, is
absolutely unsupported by evidence.
3 Especially the Irish, for whom
neither age nor sex was a protection.
Gardiner, Great Civil War, ii. 337.

before the Restoration. 67

had been ill used by Montrose's army, the people in revenge CHAP. in.
fell on them, and knocked them in the head. Several
persons of quality were condemned for being with him :
and these were proceeded against both with severity and 40
with many indignities. The preachers thundered in their
pulpits against all that did the work of the Lord deceitfully,
and cried out against all that were for moderate proceedings,
as guilty of the blood that had been shed. Thine eye shall
not pity, and thou shalt not spare^ were often inculcated ;
and after every execution they triumphed with so little
decency, that it gave all people very ill impressions of them.
But this was not the worst effect of Montrose's expedition.
It lost the opportunity at Uxbridge : it alienated the Scots
much from the king: it exalted all that were enemies to
peace. For now they seemed to have some colour for all
those aspersions they had cast on the king, as if he had been
in a correspondence with the Irish rebels, when the worst
tribe of them was thus employed by him x. a His affairs
declined totally in England that summer, bandb Holies said
to me. all was owing to Montrose's unhappy successes.

Upon this occasion I will relate somewhat concerning
Antrim 2. I had in my hand several of his letters to the
king in the year 1646, writ in a very confident style : for
he was a very arrogant, as well as a very weak, man. One
was somewhat particular: he in a postscript desired the
king to send the inclosed to the good woman, without
making any excuse for the presumption ; by which, as
follows in the postscript, he meant his wife, the duchess of
Buckingham. This made me more easy to believe a story

a And as struck out. b substituted for so.

1 This opinion is expressed by at an end by Feb. 15 ; Great Civil
Welwood, 63. But Mr. Gardiner War, ii. 75. Montrose's 'worst tribe'
has made it abundantly clear that of Irish, were, it should be noticed,
although the receipt of the letter on MacdonelFs men, of Scottish descent.
Feb. 19 probably affected Charles's a See supra 62 ; Clarendon's Con-
tone during the following days, all tinuation,i. 510 (Clar. Press) ; Pepys,
hope of accommodation had departed, Feb. 22, 1664 ; and the detailed account
and that the treaty was practically in Carte's Ormond, iv. i53-l85-

F 2

68 A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. in. that the earl of Essex told me he had from the earl of
MS~7T Northumberland : | upon the restoration, in the year 1660,
Antrim was thought guilty of so much bloodshed, that it
was taken for granted he could not be included in the
indemnity that was to pass in Ireland. Upon this he seeing
the duke of Ormond set against him, came over to London,
and was lodged at Somerset House : and it was believed
that, having no children, he settled his estate on Jermyn,
then earl of St. Albans : but before he came over, he had
made a prior settlement in favour of his brother1. He
petitioned the king to order a committee of council to
examine the warrants that he had acted upon. The earl
of Clarendon was for rejecting the petition, as containing
a high indignity to the memory of king Charles the first :
and said plainly at council table, that if any person had
pretended to affirm such a thing while they were at Oxford,
he would either have been very severely punished for it, or
the king would soon have had a very thin court. But * it
seemed just to see what he had to say for himself: so
a committee was named, of which the earl of Northumber-
land was the chief. He produced to them some of the
king's letters : but they did not come to a full proof. b In
41 one of them the king wrote that he had not then leisure,
but referred himself to the queen's letter ; and said, that
was all one as if he writ himself. Upon this foundation he
produced a series of letters writ by himself to the queen, in
which he gave her an account of every one of the particulars
that were laid to his charge, and shewed the grounds he
went on, and desired her directions ; and to every one of
these he had answers ordering him to do as he did. This

a the king said that interlined. b But struck out.

1 His estate had been allotted to Sir upon St. Albans, with the connexion

John Clotworthy (created Viscount between this and the queen-mother's

Massereene, Nov. 1660) and other great interest in the restitution of

' adventurers.' On the settlement the estate to Antrim, see Carte's

upon his brother Alexander Mac- Ormond,\v. 1 88. Jermyn was created

denell, and the subsequent settlement Earl of St. Albans in 1660; died 1683.

before the Restoration. 69

the queen-mother espoused with great zeal, and said she CHAP. ill.
was bound in honour to save him. I saw a great deal of
that management, for I was then at court l. But it was
generally believed, that this train of letters was made up
at that time in a collusion between the queen and him. So
a report was prepared to be signed by the committee,
setting forth that he had so fully justified himself in every
thing that had been objected to him, that he ought not to
be excepted out of the indemnity. This was brought first
to the earl of Northumberland to be signed by him : but he
refused it, and said he was sorry he had produced such
warrants, but he did not think they could serve his turn ;
for he did riot believe any warrant from the king or queen
could justify so much bloodshed in so many black instances
as were laid against him. Upon his refusal, the rest of the
committee did not think fit to sign the report : so it was
let fall : and the king was prevailed on to write to the duke
of Ormond, telling him that he had so vindicated himself,
that he must endeavour to get him included in the indemnity.
That was done ; and was no small reproach to the king,
that did thus sacrifice his father's honour to his mother's
importunity. Upon this the earl of Essex told me, he had
taken all the pains he could to inquire into the original of
the Irish massacre, but could never see any a reason a to
believe the king had any accession to it 2. He did indeed
believe that the queen hearkened to propositions made by
the Irish, who undertook to take the government of Ireland
into their hands, which they thought they could easily
perform : and then, they said, they would assist the king to

a substituted for so .... (?).

1 Burnet was born on September mentioned supra 68, was named in

18, 1643, and was therefore less than the beginning of 1663, in which year

17 years old at the Restoration. Burnet made his first visit to Eng-

Bevill Higgons, x. 72, remarks on the land, staying but six months,

incredibility of his being admitted 2 And who but a beast ever be-

into such confidence as to enable him lieved it ? S. For the explanation why

to speak with authority on these people other than 'beasts' believed

points. The Committee of Council this, see Gardiner, x. 7, 92 and note.

70 A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. III. subdue the hot spirits at Westminster. With this the plot
of the insurrection began : and all the Irish believed the
queen encouraged it. But in the first design there was no
thought of a massacre : that came in head as they were
laying the methods of executing it, which, as they were
managed by the priests, so they were the chief men that
set on the Irish to all the blood and cruelty that followed.
I know nothing particular of the sequel of the war, nor
of all the confusions that happened till the murder of king
Charles the first : only one passage I had from lieutenant
42 general Drummond, afterwards lord Strathallan1. Reserved
on the king's side, but had many friends among those who
were for the covenant: so, athe king's affairs being now
ruined a, he was recommended to Cromwell, being then in
a treaty with the Spanish ambassador, who was negociating
for some regiments to be levied and sent over from Scot-
land to Flanders. He happened to be with Cromwell
when the commissioners, sent from Scotland to protest
against the putting the king to death, came to argue the
matter with him. Cromwell bade Drummond stay and
hear their conference, which he did. They began in a
heavy languid way to lay indeed great load on the king :
but they still insisted on that clause in the covenant, by
which they swore they would be faithful in the preserva-
tion of his Majesty's person : and with this they shewed
upon what terms Scotland, as well as the two Houses, had
engaged in the war, and what solemn declarations b of
their zeal and duty to the kingb they all along published ;
which would now appear, to the scandal and reproach of
the Christian name, to have been false pretences, if when
the king was in their power they should c proceed to
extremities. Upon this, Cromwell entered into a long

a interlined. b interlined. c now struck out.

1 William Drummond was created cultivation, and compiled the l Genea-

Viscount of Strathallan and Baron logie of the most ancient House of

Drummond of Cromlix in Sept. 1686 ; Drummond,' cf. infra 107.
died 1688. He was a man of high

before the Restoration. 71

a discourse a of the nature of the regal power, according to CHAP. in.
the principles of Mariana and Buchanan : he thought 1
ba breach of trust in a king ought to be punished more
than any other crime whatsoever. He said, as to their
covenant, they j swore to the preservation of the king's MS. 22.
person in the defence of the true religion : if then it
appeared that the settlement of the true religion was
obstructed only by the king, so that they could not come
at it but by putting him out of the way, then their oath
could not bind them to the preserving him any longer.
He said also, their covenant did bind them to bring all
malignants, incendiaries, and enemies to the cause, to
condign punishment : and was not this to be executed
impartially? What were all those on whom public justice
had been done, especially those who suffered for joining with
Montrose, but small offenders acting by commission from
the king, who was therefore the principal, and so the most
guilty? Drummond said Cromwell had plainly the better of
them at their own weapon, c and upon their own principles02.
At this time presbytery was in its height in Scotland.

a substituted for speech. b such struck out. c interlined.

1 Juan de Mariana (1536-1623), a work in the time of the Long Parlia-
Jesuit, author of a work entitled ment, and was reprinted in 1688.
De Rege et Regis Institutione, defend- z ' I give to the wife of Oliver
ing regicide under certain circum- Cromwell for his keeping the cove-
stances. He also wrote a History nant in the right sense, by murdering
of Spain. George Buchanan pub- the king, a groat a day.' This item
lished his tract De Jure Regni in the author of Manes Presbyteriani, a
1579. It is 'a defence of legiti- tract so entitled, makes the Marquis
mate or limited monarchy, a state- of Argyll add to his supposed last
ment of the duty of monarchs and will and testament. And according
subjects to each other, in which he to principal Baillie's account, his
lays stress chiefly on the former, a friends the covenanters, when in the
plea for the right of popular election year 1646 they despaired of prevail-
of kings and maintaining the re- ing with the king to establish the
ponsibility of bad kings, in treating Covenant, were little disposed to
which he does not shrink from up- prevent that sense of the clause for
holding tyrannicide in cases of ex- the preservation of his person being
treme wickedness ' ; Dr. Mackay in acted on. See Baillie's Letters, vol.
the Diet. Nat. Biog. The tract was ii. 371, 373, 381, and especially 383,
suppressed in 1584^1 was a standard 407. The suggestions of Herle the

72 A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. III. In summer 1648, when the parliament a declared they
would engage to rescue the king from his imprisonment,
and the parliament of England from the force it was put
under by the army, the nobility went into the design, all
except six or eight. b The king had signed an engagement
to make good his offers to the nation of the northern
counties, with the other conditions formerly mentioned :
43 and particular favours were promised to every one that
concurred in it1. The marquis of Argyll gave it out that
the Hamiltons, let them pretend what they would, had no
sincere intentions to their cause, but had engaged to serve
the king on his own terms : he filled the preachers with
such jealousies of this, that though all the demands that
they made for the security of their cause, and in declaring
the grounds of the war, were complied with, yet they
could not be satisfied, but still said the Hamiltons were in
a confederacy with the malignants in England, and did not
intend to stand to what was then promised. The general
assembly declared against it, as an unlawful confederacy
with the .enemies of God ; and called it the unlawful
Engagement, which came to be the name commonly given
to it in all their pulpits. They every where preached
against it, and opposed the levies all they could, by solemn
denunciations of the wrath and curse of God on all con-
cerned in them. This was a- strange piece of opposition
to the state, little inferior to what was pretended or put
in practice by the church of Rome.

The south-west counties of Scotland have seldom corn
enough to serve them round the year : and the northern parts
producing more than they need, these of the west usually
came in the summer to buy at Leith the stores that come
from the north : and from a word wkiggam, used in driving
their horses, all that drove was called the whiggamors, and

a had struck out. b For struck out.

prolocutor, in a sermon preached to say that Baillie nowhere makes

before the House of Commons on any suggestion of murder.
Nov. 5, 1644, may be found at page l See supra 59 and note.

16 of the discourse. R. It is needless

before the Restoration. 73

shorter the whiggs1. Now in that year, after the news CHAP. III.
came down of duke Hamilton's defeat, the ministers
animated their people to rise, and march to Edinburgh : ' T648. '
and they came up marching on the head of the parishes,
with an unheard-of fury, praying and preaching all the way
as they came. The marquis of Argyll and his party came
and headed them, they being about 6000. And this was
called the whiggamors inroad : and ever after that all that
opposed the court came in contempt to be called whiggs:
and from Scotland the word was brought into England,
where it is now one of our unhappy terms of distinction 2.

The Committee of Estates, with the force that they had
in their hands, could easily have dissipated this undis-
ciplined herd ; but they, knowing their own weakness, had
sent to Cromwell, desiring his assistance. Upon that, the
committee saw they could not stand before him : so they
came to a treaty, and delivered up the government to this
new body ; and upon their assuming it, they declared all
who had served or assisted towards the Engagement in-
capable of any employment, till they had first satisfied
the kirk of the truth of their repentance, and made public
profession of it. All churches were upon that full of mock 44
penitents, some a making their acknowledgments all in
tears, to gain more credit with the new party. The earl
of Loudoun, that was chancellor3, had entered into solemn
promises both to the king and the Hamiltons : but when

a that they might recover their credit struck out.

1 It seems doubtful whether the man living was more ready to foment
shortened term < Whig' was in vogue than the good bishop himself; and
before the fight at the Pentland Hills the first inquiry he made into any
in 1666, when Burnet himself inti- body's character was, whether he
mates (f. 234) that it was first used. were a whig or a tory : if the latter,
There is certainly no trace that ' ever he made it his business to rake all
after' 1648 it was the name given to the spiteful stories he could collect
opponents of the court. Halton, together, in order to lessen their
Lauderdale's brother, entitles his ac- esteem in the world, which he was
count of the Pentland rebellion, 'The very free to publish, without any
Historic off the Whiggamor Road,' regard to decency or modesty.
Lauderdale Papers, i. 252. 3 See supra 42, 47 note, and infra

2 Which unhappy distinctions no 224.

74

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. ill. he came to Scotland, his wife1, a fierce covenanter, and
an heiress by whom he had both honour and estate,
threatened him, if he went on that way, with a process
of adultery, in which it was believed she could have had
very copious proofs : he durst not stand against this, and
so compounded the matter by deserting his friends, and
turning over to the other side : of which he made public
profession in the church of Edinburgh with many tears,
confessing his weakness in yielding to the temptation of
what had a shew of honour and loyalty, for which he
expressed a hearty sorrow. Those that came in early,
with great shews of compunction, got easier off: but those
who stood out long found it a harder matter to make their
peace. Cromwell came down to Scotland, and saw the
new model fully settled.

During his absence from the scene, the treaty of the
isle of Wight was set on foot by the parliament, that,
seeing the army at such a distance, took this occasion of
1648. treating with the king. Sir Harry Vane, and others who
were for a change of government, had no mind to treat
any more ; but both city and country were so desirous
of a personal treaty, that it could not be resisted 2. Vane,
Pierpoint, and some others, went to the treaty on purpose
to delay matters till the army could be brought up to
London. All that wished well to the treaty prayed the
MS. 23. king, at their first coming, | to dispatch the business with
all possible haste, and to grant the first day all that he
could bring himself to grant on the last3. Holies and
Grimston told me, they both on their knees begged this

1 Margaret, daughter of Sir John
Gordon of Lochinvar. Cole.

2 See Cromwell's letter to Ham-
mond, Nov. 1648, Clarke Papers
(Camd. Soc.\ ed. Firth, ii. 49.

3 See Grimston's letter of Oct. 21,
1648, to Sir R. Harley, Portland
MSS. vol. iii. H. M. C. Rep. xiv.
App. ii, urging the acceptance of the
king's answer. ' Pray desyre all our

freinds to attend the house diligently,
and lett not a ship richly laden after
a long voyage full of hazards, be
cast away within sight of land.' The
letters of John Crewe, M.P., one of
the Commissioners at the Isle of
Wight, giving a detailed account of
the progress of the treaty, are in the
Cal. St. P. Dom. 1648-9. See also
Ludlow, i. 177, 207.

before the Restoration.

75

of the king. They said, they knew Vane would study to CHAP. III.
draw out the treaty to a great length : and he, who
declared for an unbounded liberty of conscience, would
try to gain on the king s party by the offer of a toleration
for the common prayer and the episcopal clergy1. aHis
design in that was to gain time, till Cromwell should
settle Scotland and the north. But they said, if the king
would frankly come in, without the formality of papers
backward and forward, and send them back next day with
the concessions that were absolutely necessary, they did
not doubt but he should in a very few days be brought
up with honour, freedom, and safety to the parliament,
and that matters should be brought to a present settle-
ment 2. Titus, who was then much trusted by the king,

a But struck out.

1 e. g. Ogle's plot, 1644. Gar-
diner, Great Civil War, i. 310. See
also, with reference to Vane and the
King, id. ii. 442.

2 Let the concessions here referred
to be viewed, and then let it be an-
swered, how the king could consent
to them in honour and conscience,
or consistently with the follow-
ing solemn declaration sent by him
in the year 1645, to Sir Edward
Nicholas, for the purpose of its being
communicated to his friends : ' And
now methinks I were to blame, if I
did not justify the truth of your
opinions concerning me by my own
declaration, which is this, That let
my condition be never so low, my
successes never so ill, I resolve, by
the grace of God, never to yield
up this church to the government
of papists, presbyterians, or inde-
pendents ; nor to injure my succes-
sors, by lessening the crown of that
ecclesiastical and military power,
which my predecessors left me ; nor
forsake my friends, much less to let
them suffer, when I do not, for their
faithfulness to me, resolvingsooner to

live as miserable as the violent rage
of successful insulting rebells can
make me, which I esteem far worse
than death, rather than not to be
exactly constant to these grounds ;
from which,whosoever, upon whatso-
ever occasion, shall persuade me to
recede in the least tittle, I shall esteem
him either a fool or a knave.' The
king s Letters to Sir Edward Nicholas
published by Bray in the Appendix
to Evelyn's Memoirs (1818), [see
Nicholas Papers (Camd. Soc.), Pref. ii.
ed. Warner, p. 104.] R. As to the
concessions here referred to by
Burnet, the king was required pre-
viously to his treating on certain
propositions to assent to four bills
already passed by both houses, by
the first of which the whole power
of the state was vested in the parlia-
ment during twenty years. Amongst
the propositions to be treated on,
one was for the prosecution of the
king's friends, another for the aboli-
tion of episcopacy, and a third for
the education of the children of
Romanists by protestants. It had
been agreed with the Scotch in the

76

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. III. and employed in a negociation with the presbyterian
~ 45 Party> t0^ me *kat ^e ^ad sP°ke often and earnestly to
him in the same strain l : but the aking could not come to
a resolution : and he still fancied that in the struggle
between the house of commons and the army, both saw
they needed him so much to give them the superior
strength, therefore he imagined that by balancing them
he would bring both sides into a greater dependence on
himself, and force them to better terms. In this Vane
flattered the episcopal party, to the king's ruin as well as
their own. But they still hated the presbyterians as the
first authors of the war ; and seemed unwilling to think
well of them, or to be beholding to them. Thus the

a unhappy struck out.

preceding year, to exclude from
pardon twenty-six noblemen, three
bishops, twenty-nine knights, and
thirteen gentlemen of quality, in all
seventy-one persons then named,
besides all Romanists who had
served the king, and all such who
having been proceeded against by
the English or Scottish parliament
for what they termed treason, should
be condemned before an act of obli-
vion passed. See the List of Divers
Persons, whose names are to be pre-
sented to the king's majestic to die
without mercy by the agreement of
both Kingdoms, Lond. 1647. R.

1 Silas Titus ; he fought for the
Parliament, but was opposed to
Cromwell, and transferred his allegi-
ance to Charles I, in whose service
he was at Carisbrooke. In 1649
he was employed as agent between
the English Presbyterians in Hol-
land and the queen-mother. In Au-
gust 1650, he was voted to be of
the king's bedchamber in Scotland
by the Parliament at Edinburgh
(Walker's Narrative, 177). He was
sent thence to carry to Henrietta
Maria in France the proposals of
Charles and Argyll for the marriage

of the king to Argyll's daughter
(Hillier, Charles I in the Isle of Wight,
325-331, and note infra 101), and he
continued as a trusted royalist agent
after the battle of Worcester. Cal.
Clar. St. P., June 1652, et passim.
He afterwards claimed to be the
author of Killing No Murder,' which
appeared in May, 1657, Cal. Clar. St.
P. iii. 297, 344, 397 ; and as late as
April 2, 1669, Evelyn names him as
such without reserve. In Thurloe,
vi. 560, however, there is a deposi-
tion that Sexby, while a prisoner in
the Tower, ' owned it as his own
work.' See on this point the note to
Lingard, xi. 321. Titus certainly co-
operated eagerly in the design for
Cromwell's assassination (Cal. Clar.
St. P. iii. passim}. He was largely
rewarded at the Restoration and
afterwards (Cal. St. P. Dom. 1661-2,
172 and 284). He sat in all the
parliaments of Charles II, though in
the convention and Pensionary Par-
liaments he appears, according to the
lists of members in the ParL Hist, iv,
to have come in at bye-elections. He
was a strong advocate of the Exclu-
sion Bill. See especially H. M. C.
Rep. x. App. vi. 196.

before the Restoration. 77

treaty went on with a fatal slowness: and by the time it CHAP. III.
was come to some maturity, Cromwell came up with his
army, and overturned all.

Upon this I will set down what sir Harbottle Grimston
told me a few weeks before his death : but whether it
was done at this time, or the year before, I cannot tell :
I rather believe the latter. When the house of commons
and the army were a quarrelling, at a meeting of the officers
it was proposed to purge the army better, that they might
know whom to depend on 1. Cromwell upon that said, he
was sure of the army ; but there was another body that
had more need of purging, naming the house of commons,
and he thought the army only could do that. Two officers
that were present brought an account of this to Grimston,
who carried them with him to the lobby of the house of
commons, they being resolved to justify it to the house.
There was another debate then on foot : but Grimston
diverted it, and said he had a matter of privilege of the
highest sort to lay before them : it was about the being
and freedom of the house itself. So he charged Cromwell
with the design of putting a force on the house : he had
his witnesses at the door, and desired they might be
examined. They were brought to the bar, and justified
all that they had said, and gave a full relation of all that
had passed at their meetings. When they withdrew,
Cromwell fell down on his knees, and made a solemn
prayer to God, attesting his innocence, and his zeal for
the service of the house: he submitted himself to the
providence of God, who it seems thought fit to exercise
him with calumny and slander, but he committed his cause
to him. This he did with great vehemence, and with
many tears. After this strange and bold preamble, he
made so long a speech, justifying both himself and the
rest of the officers, except a few that seemed inclined to
return back to Egypt, that he wearied out the house,
and wrought so much on his party, that what the wit-

1 Carlyle, Cromwell, June to September, 1647. Rushworth, 1070.

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. in. nesses had said was so little believed, that, had it been
moved, Grimstone thought that both he and they would
46 have been sent to the Tower 1. But whether their guilt
made them modest, or that they had no mind to have the
matter much talked of, they let it fall : and there was no
strength in the other side to carry it farther. To complete
this scene, as soon as ever Cromwell got out of the house,
he resolved to trust himself no more among them ; but

June, 1647. went a to the army, and in a few days he brought them up,
and forced a great many from the house 2.

I had much discourse with one who knew Cromwell
well, and all that set of men, on this head, and asked him
how they could excuse all the prevarications, and other
ill things, of which they were visibly guilty in the conduct
of their affairs. He told me, they believed there were
great occasions in which some men were called to great
services, in the doing of which they were excused from
the common rules of morality : such were the practices of
Ehud and Jael, Samson and David : and by this they
fancied they had a privilege from observing the standing
rules b. It is very obvious how far this principle may be
carried, and how all justice and mercy may be laid aside
on this pretence by every bold enthusiast. Ludlow, in his
Memoirs, justifies this force put on the parliament, as
much as he condemns the force that Cromwell and the
army afterwards put on the house : and he seems to lay
this down for a maxim, that the military power ought
MS. 24. always to be subject to the civil : | and yet, without any
sort of resentment for what he had done, he owns the
share he had in the force put on the parliament at this
time 3. The plain reconciling of this is, that he thought

* straight struck out. b of morality struck out.

1 This story is entirely uncorro-
borated, though probably true so far
as Cromwell's justifying himself is
concerned. Gardiner, Great Civil
War, iii. 43.

3 After Holmby House. But it

was Fairfax, not Cromwell, who
brought the army to London ; though
Cromwell was probably the adviser
of this action.

3 The soldiers demanded a voice
in the settlement of the kingdom on

before the Restoration. 79

when the army judged the parliament was in the wrong, CHAP. ill.
they might use violence, but not otherwise : which gives
the army a superior authority, and inspection into the
proceedings of the parliament. This shews how impossible
it is to set up a commonwealth in England : for that
cannot be brought about but by a military force : and they
will ever keep the parliament in subjection to them, and
so keep up their own authority1.

I leave all that relates to the king's trial and death to
common historians, knowing nothing that is particular aof a Jan. 1649.
that great transaction, which was certainly one of the
most amazing scenes in history. Ireton was the person
that drove it on : for Cronrvvell was all the while in some
suspense about it. Ireton had the principles and the
temper of a Cassius in him : he stuck at nothing that
might have turned England to a commonwealth : and
he found out Cook2 and Bradshaw, two bold lawyers, as
proper instruments for managing it. Fairfax was much
distracted in his mind, and changed purpose often every
day. The presbyterians and the body of the city were
much against it, band were everywhere fasting and praying
for the king's preservation b. There were not above 8000
of the army about the town : but these were selected out
of the whole army, as the most engaged in enthusiasm :
and they were kept at prayer in their way almost day
and night, except when they were upon duty : so that they

a substituted for that related to. b interlined.

the ground ' that we are not a meer or rights of this kingdom in Parlia-

mercenary Army hired to serve ment, &c." Declaration of the Army.

any Arbitrary power of a State, but Clarke Papers, ed. Firth (Camd.Soc).,

called forth and conjured by the Introd. xxxv.

several Declarations of Parliament l ' Some of the soldiers doe not

to the defence of our owne and the sticke to call the parliament men,

people's just Rights and Liberties ; tyrants. Lilborne's books are quoted

and so we took up armes in judge- by them as statute law.' Portland

ment and conscience to those ends, MSS. vol. iii. p. 156 ; H. M. C. Rep.

and are resolved according to "... our xiv. App. Part ii.

own common sense concerning those 2 Author of King Charles his Case

our fundamental rights and liberties, (1649); see the reply by Butler,

to assert and vindicate the just power Genuine Remains, \. 326.

8o

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. III. were wrought up to a pitch of fury, that struck a terror
into all people. On the other hand, the king's party were
without spirit : and, as many of themselves have said to
me, they could never believe his death was really intended
till it was too late. They thought all was a pageantry to
strike a terror, and to force the king to such concessions
as they had a mind to extort from him.

aThe king himself shewed a calm and a composed firm-
ness which amazed all people : and that so much the more,
because that was not natural to him1. It was imputed
to a very extraordinary measure of supernatural assistance.
Bishop Juxon did the duty of his function honestly, but
with a dry coldness that could not much raise the king's
thoughts : so it was owing wholly to somewhat within
himself that he went through so many indignities with
so much true greatness, without disorder or any sort of
affectation. Thus he died greater than he had lived ; and
shewed that which has been often observed of the whole
race of the Stewarts, that they bore misfortunes much
better than prosperity. His reign, both in peace and war,
was a continued series of errors : so that it does not appear
that he had a true judgment of things. He was out of
measure bset onb following his humour, but unreasonably
feeble to those whom he trusted, chiefly to the queen.
He had too high a notion of the regal power, and thought
that every opposition to it was rebellion. He minded little
things too much, and was more concerned in the drawing

ft On the other hand struck out. b substitued for obstinate in.

1 Sir Philip Meadows told me he
was at Newmarket when the army
brought the kingthither, and observed
that the king's was the only cheerful
face in the place ; which put me in
mind of the night King James re-
turned to Whitehall, where I stood by
him during his supper; and he told
all that had happened to him at Fever-
sham with as much unconcernedness
as if they had been the adventures of

some other person, and directed a
great deal of his discourse to me,
though I was but a boy. D. Welwood
and Sir Philip Warwick both speak
in high terms of Charles's personal
courage, while Alexander Henderson,
on his deathbed, paid full tribute to
his intellectual and moral virtues, as
he learned them in his conferences
with the king at Newcastle. Kennet
190 ; Salmon's Examination, 373.

before the Restoration.

81

of a paper than in fighting a battle. He had a firm CHAP. ill.
aversion to popery, but was much inclined to a middle
way between protestants and papists, by which he lost
the one without gaining the other1. His engaging the
duke of Rohan in the war of the Rochelle, and then assist-
ing him so poorly, and forsaking him at last, gave a an ill
character of him to all the protestants abroad. The earl
of Lauderdale told me, the duke of Rohan was at Geneva,
where he himself was, when he received a very long letter,
or rather a little book, from my father, which gave him
a copious account of the beginning of the troubles in
Scotland : he translated it to the duke of Rohan, who
expressed a vehement indignation at the court of England
for their usage of him : of which this was the account he
then gave 2.

The duke of Buckingham had a secret conversation with 48
the queen of France, of which the queen- mother was very

" a mean and struck out.

1 It was the same middle and
right way, however calumniated,
which the king's father so well de-
scribed in his speech to his first
parliament. ' If they (the papists)
would be ashamed of such new and
gross corruptions of theirs, as they
themselves cannot maintain, nor
deny to be worthy of reformation,
I would for mine own part be con-
tent to meet them in the midway,
so that all novelties might be re-
nounced on either side. For as my
faith is the true, ancient, catholic and
apostolic faith, grounded upon the
scriptures and express word of God ;
so I will ever yield all reverence to
antiquity in points of ecclesiastical
polity, and by that means shall I ever,
with God's grace, keep myself from
either being a heretic in faith, or
schismatic in matters of polity.' R.
" See Rohan's Memoires {Collection
VOL. I. G

di4 Memoires relatifs a Yhistoire de
France, Paris, 1877, Petitot, vol. 18),
320-330, 363-366, 372, 390-394,
408-410. At the last-mentioned
page, Rohan says that, while still
encouraging him to persevere, after
the fall of Rochelle, Charles made a
secret arrangement with Louis XIII.
^'Israeli's Commentaries,!. 3 15^1851).
See ' Cabala,' 1654, part ii. 204, 208,
for the letters from the French Pro-
testants and from Rohan to Charles,
praying for help after the fall of
Rochelle; and 'King Charles hts
case.' Mr. S. R. Gardiner points out
that Rohan is probably mistaken as
to a secret arrangement. The treaty
with France was negotiated after
the fall of Rochelle, and the messen-
gers from England might be long
in reaching Rohan, whom Charles
could have no object in deceiving.

82

A Summary of Affairs

1625.

CHAP. III. jealouss and possessed the king with such a sense of it,
thata he was ordered immediately to leave the court.
Upon his return to England under this affront, he possessed
the king with such a hatred of that court, that the queen
was ill used on her coming over, and all her servants were
sent back1. He also told him the protestants were so ill
used, and yet so strong, that if he would protect them, they
would involve that kingdom into new wars ; which he repre-
sented as so glorious a beginning of his reign, that the king,
without weighing the consequence of it, sent one to treat
with the duke of Rohan about it2. Great assistance was
promised by sea : so a war was resolved on, in which the
share that our court had is well enough known. But the
infamous part was, that Richelieu got the king of France
to make his queen write an obliging letter to the duke of
Buckingham, assuring him that, if he would let the Rochelle
fall without, assisting it, he should have leave to come over,
and should settle the whole matter of the religion according
MS 25. to their | edicts. This was a strange proceeding : but
cardinal Richelieu could turn that weak king as he pleased.
July, 1627. Upon this the duke made that shameful campaign of the
isle of Rhe. But finding next winter that he was not to
be suffered to go over into France, and that he was abused
into a false hope, he resolved to have followed that matter
with more vigour, when he was stabbed by Felton 3.

There is another story told of the king's conduct during

a upon his return struck out.

1 The love-making was in June,
1625. The disagreement between
Charles and the queen, in September,
was caused by the king's breach of
faith in placing the Catholics again
under the penal laws. The expul-
sion of her French attendants was
not until July, 1626.

3 See Rohan's account of Buck-
ingham (Memoires, 309) : ' Le due de
Buckingham, qui n'agissait en toutes
ces affaires ni par affection de reli-

gion, ni pour Thonneur de son maitre,
mais seulement pour satisfaire a la
passion de quelques folles amours
qu'il avait en France, prend ces deux
sujets pour vouloir venir en ambas-
sade.' Charles's emissary was Sir
Henry de Vic.

3 Rohan, Metnoires, 390-394, says
that Charles was bent on the expedi-
tion, but that Buckingham was doing
all in his power to prevent it.

before the Restoration. 83

the peaceable part of his reign, which I had from Halewyn CHAP. ill.
of Dort J, who was one of the judges in the court of Holland,
and was the wisest and greatest man I knew among them.
He told me he had it from his father, who, being then the
chief man of Dort, was of the states, and had the secret
communicated to him. When Isabella Clara Eugenia2 grew
old, and began to decline, a great many of her council,
apprehending what miseries they would fall under when
they should be again in the hands of the Spaniards, formed
a design of making themselves a free commonwealth, that,
in imitation of the union among the cantons of Switzerland
that were of both religions, should be in a perpetual con-
federacy with the states of the seven provinces. This they
communicated to Henry Frederick prince of Orange, and
to some of the states, who approved of it, but thought it 1633.
necessary to engage the king of England into it. The
prince of Orange told the English ambassador, that there
was a matter of great consequence that was fit to be laid
before the king ; but it was of such a nature, and such
persons were concerned in it, that it could not be com- 49
municated, unless the king would be pleased to promise
absolute secrecy for the present. This the king did : and
then the prince of Orange sent him the whole scheme.
The secret was ill kept : either the king trusted it to some
who discovered it, or the paper was stolen from him ; for
it was sent over to the court at Brussells : one of the
ministry lost his head for it : and some took the alarm so
quick that they got to Holland and out of danger. After
this the prince of Orange had no more commerce with our
court, and often lamented that so great a design was so
unhappily lost3. He had as ill an opinion of the king's

1 See f. 328. Burnet no doubt Albert, May 6, 1598; born 1566,
made his acquaintance and that of died 1633, supra, 12. Motley, United
other leading men in Holland when Netherlands, iii. 588.

he visited that country in 1664; f. 207. 3 If it be true that King Charles

2 Daughter of Philip II of Spain, occasioned the miscarriage of this
appointed by him joint governor of attempt, whether just or unjust, use-
the Netherlands with her future ful for England, or otherwise, by
husband the Cardinal Archduke which the independence of Flanders

G 2

84

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. ill. conduct of the war ; for when the queen came over, and
brought some of the generals with her, the prince said,
after he had talked with them, (as the late king told me,)
he did not wonder to see the affairs of England decline as
they did, since he had talked with the king's generals.

I will not enter farther into the military part : for I re-
member an advice of the Marshal Schomberg; never to
meddle in the relation of military matters 1. He said,
some affected a to relate those affairs in all the terms of
war, in which they committed errors that exposed them to
the scorn of all commanders, who must despise relations
that pretend to an exactness when there were great errors
in every part of them.

In the king's death the very ill effect of extreme violent
counsels discovered itself. Ireton hoped that by this all
men concerned in it would become irreconcileable to
monarchy, and would act as desperate men, and destroy all
that might revenge that blood. But this had a very
different effect. Something of the same nature had
happened in lower instances before : but they were not the

ft to a niceness struck out.

on Spain was to be effected ; yet as
Sir William Temple relates, in his
Memoirs from the Peace in 1679, the
king peremptorily refused his consent
to the subjugation of that country
by France : for which Cardinal Riche-
lieu, according to his express threat,
made him pay dear, by immediately
negotiating with some discontented
nobles of Scotland then at Paris,
and sending over two hundred thou-
sand pistoles to others in that king-
dom, for the purpose of exciting the
troubles which took place. See
Temple s Works, vol. ii. p. 545. R.
Temple only says that he knew it
'by tradition from a noble family.'
The whole of this curious episode
is fully detailed by Mr. Gardiner,
Hist, of England, vii. 344-347. The

secret was betrayed to the Infanta —
who,however,died immediately after-
wards, Nov. 22, 1633 — by the king's
agent at Brussels, Balthasar Gerbier,
for 20,000 crowns. See also The None
Such Charles his character, 137-147,
154, upon which work see supra,
22 note. Gerbier's journals are pre-
served in the Paper Room at White-
hall ; and he was examined before the
lords on the whole matter in 1642 ;
id. 43, 135. See the Hardivicke State
Papers, ii. 54-92. He seems to have
been in considerable favour after
the Restoration ; Cal. St. P. Dom.
1661-2, 79, 455. The secretary who
was executed was John de Vivaldo.
1 Very foolish advice, for soldiers
cannot write. S. Upon Schomberg
see infra f. 172.

before the Restoration. 85

wiser for it. The earl of Stratford's death made all his CHAP. Ill
former errors be forgot : it raised his character, and cast
a lasting odium on that way of proceeding ; whereas he
had sunk in his credit by any censure lower than death,
and had been little pitied, if not thought justly punished.
The like effect followed upon archbishop Laud's death.
He was a learned, a sincere, and zealous man, regular in
his own life, and humble a in his private deportment ; but
was a hot, indiscreet man, eagerly pursuing some matters
that were either very inconsiderable or mischievous ; such
as setting the communion table by the east wall of churches,
bowing to it; and calling it the altar ; the suppressing the
Walloons' privileges, the breaking of lectures, the encourag-
ing sports on the Lord's day, with some other things that
were of no value : and yet all the heat and zeal of that time
was laid out on these1. His seventy in the Star-chamber 50
and in the high commission court, but above all his violence,
and indeed inexcusable injustice, in the prosecution of
bishop Williams, were such visible blemishes, that nothing
but the putting him to death in so unjust a manner could
have raised his character ; which indeed it did to a degree
of setting him up as a pattern, and the establishing all his
notions as standards by which judgments are to be made
of men, whether they are true to the church or not. His
diary, though it was a base thing to publish it2, represents
him as an abject fawner on the duke of Buckingham, and

ft but very rough and ungracious not in the MS. at all. •

1 By no means. It was to intro- the external service of God accord-

duce by degrees a spirit of decency ing to the doctrine and discipline of

and regularity in church matters, the church all men know, and I have

totally neglected by Archbishop abundantly felt.' Laud's last speech.

Abbot; to depress the growing spirit See also Mr. Gardiner's comment

of faction and sectarism ; and to op- upon Laud's work; Great Civil War,

pose a milder and more moderate ii. 51.

mode of Christianity, by Arminian- '2 A garbled edition was published

ism, to the heats and fury of wild by Prynne in 1644 ; and a complete

Calvinism. Cole. ' What clamours edition by Wharton in 1695. The

and slanders I have endured for the MS. is in the library of St. John's

labouring to keep an uniformity in College, Oxford.

86

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. ill. as a superstitious regarder of dreams : a his defence of him-
self, writ with so much care when he was in the Tower, is
a very mean performance. b He intended in that to make
an appeal to the world. In most particulars he excuses
himself by this, that he was but one of many, who either
MS. 26. in | council, star-chamber, or high commission, voted illegal
things. Now though this was true, yet a chief minister,
and one in high favour, determines the rest so much, that
they are generally little better than machines acted by him.
On other occasions he says, the thing was proved but by
one witness. Now, how strong soever this defence may be
in law, it is of no force in an appeal to the world ; for if
a thing is true, it is no matter how full or how defective
the proof is. The thing that gave me the strongest preju-
dice against him in that book is, that after he had seen
the ill effects of his violent counsels, and had been so
long shut up, and so long at leisure to reflect on what had
passed in the hurry of passion, or the exaltation of his
prosperity, he does not, in any one part of that great work,
acknowledge his own errors, nor mix in it any wise or pious
reflections, on the ill usage he met with, or on the unhappy
steps he had made : so that while his enemies did really
magnify him by their inhuman prosecution, his friends
Heylin and Wharton have as much lessened him, the one
by writing his life, and the other by publishing his vindi-
cation of himself1.

But the recoiling of cruel counsels on the authors of them
never appeared more eminently than in the death of king
Charles the first, whose serious and Christian deportment
in it made all his former errors be entirely forgot, and raised
a compassionate regard to him, that drew a lasting hatred
on the actors, and was the true occasion of the great turn

a and struck out. b since struck out.

1 Heylin's work is entitled Cypria-
nus Anglicus, or the History of the Life
and Death of William Laud, arch-
bishop of Canterbury, first published
in 1668. It is a defence of Laud

against Prynne's Canterburies Doom.
' A shrewd book, but that which I
believe will do the Bishops no great
good, but hurt, it pleads so much for
Popery.' Pepys, Sept. 16, 1668.

before the Restoration. 87

of the nation in the year 1660. This was much heightened CHAP. III.
by the publishing of his EUO>J- Ba<rtAu?j, which was universally
believed to be his : and that coming out soon after his death
had the greatest run in many impressions that any book
has had in our age. There was in it a nobleness and
a justness of thought, with a greatness of style, that made 51
it to be looked on as the best writ book in the English

o

language: and the piety of the prayers made all people
cry out against the murder of a prince, who thought so
seriously of all his affairs in his secret meditations before
God. I was bred up with a high veneration of this book :
and I remember that, when I heard how some denied it to
be his, I asked the earl of Lothian about it, who both knew
that king very well, and loved him little : he seemed con-
fident it was his own work ; for he said, he had heard him
say a great many of those very periods that he found in
that book. Being thus confirmed in that persuasion, I was
not a little surprised, when in the year 1673, in which I had
a great share of favour and free conversation with the then
duke of York, afterwards king James the second, he suffered
me to talk very freely to him about matters of religion ;
and when I was urging him with somewhat out of his
father's book, he told me that book was not of his writing,
and that the letter to the prince of Wales was never brought
to him *. He said Dr. Gauden writ it : and after the restora-
tion he brought the duke of Somerset and the earl of
Southampton both to the king and to himself, who affirmed
that they knew it was his writing ; and that it was carried
down by Southampton, and shewed the king during the treaty
of Newport, who read it, and approved of it, as containing
his sense of things. Upon this he told me, that though
Sheldon and the other bishops opposed Gauden's promo-
tion, because he had taken the covenant, yet the merit of
that service carried it for him, notwithstanding the opposi-
tion made to it. There has been a great deal of disputing

1 For the king's letter to the Prince of Wales see Clarendon, Rebellion,
xi. 189,

88

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. HI. about this book : some are so zealous for maintaining it to
be the king's, that they think a man false to the church
that doubts it to be his : yet the evidence since that time
brought to the contrary a has been so strong that I must
leave it under the same uncertainty under which I found
it a : only this is certain, that Gauden never writ any thing
with that force, his other writings being such that no man,
from a likeness of style, would think him capable of writing
so extraordinary a book as that is 1.

CHAPTER IV.

SCOTLAND UNDER THE COMMONWEALTH.

UPON the king's death the Scots proclaimed his son king,
and sent over sir George Winram, that married my great
aunt, to treat with him while he was in the isle of Jersey 2.

ft substituted for is so clear that it is a sign of an incurable obstinacy to stick
so to an indefensible opinion.

1 Notwithstanding all that has been
said or wrote upon this subject, who-
ever reads the book will plainly per-
ceive that nobody but the king him-
self could write it : that Gauden
might transcribe, and put it into the
order it is in at present, and Lord
Southampton carry it to the king for
his perusal and correction, is more
than likely : but that Gauden should
furnish the matter is utterly impos-
sible. That King Charles the Second
or King James ever (never) approved
of the contents, or had much vene-
ration for their father's conduct or
sentiments, is not to be disputed :
but the Duke of Somerset would
readily join in promoting Gauden
for the share they knew he had in
publishing a book so much to the
honour of their old master, for whom
they always professed the highest
respect and duty. This I know, that
my grandfather, who was many years

of his bedchamber, and well known
to have been much trusted by him,
always looked upon it to be authen-
tic, and prized it accordingly. D.
I think it a poor treatise, and that
the king did not write it. S. In his
anniversary sermon upon the king's
death, delivered in 1681, Burnet
speaks of it as by Charles, without
reserve. See Warwick's Memoirs,
68, 69 ; Remarks on Bishop Burnefs
History, by a True Briton, n. d., 28,
and Impartial Reflections upon Bur-
nefs History by Philalethes, London,
1724, where it is stated that Major
Huntingdon saw the king write
several parts with his own hand.
But Mr. C. E. Doble's letters in the
Academy for May 12, 26, and June 9,
30, 1883, and the article on Gauden
in the Diet. Nat. Biog. finally place
the authorship upon Gauden, who
was nominally a presbyterian.

2 This statement needs some cor-

before the Restoration.

89

The king entered into a negociation with him, and sent CHAP. IV.
him back with general assurances of consenting to every
reasonable proposition that they should send him. He
named the Hague for the place of treaty, he being to go
thither in a few days. So the Scots sent over commis-
sioners, the chief of whom were the earls of Cassillis l and 52
Lothian, the former of these was my first wife's father, 1650.
a man of great virtue and of a considerable degree of good
understanding, had he not spoiled it with many affectations,
a and an obstinate stiffness a in almost every thing that he
did. He was so sincere that he would suffer no man to
take his words in any other sense than as he meant them.
He adhered firmly to his instructions, but with so much
candour, | that king Charles retained very kind impressions MS. 27.
of it to his life's end. The man then in the greatest favour
with the king was the duke of Buckingham : he was b wholly

a interlined,
struck out.

a man of noble appearance, and of a most lovely ivit

rection. On Feb. 7, 164!, Sir Joseph
Douglas was sent to carry to Charles at
the Hague the news of his proclama-
tion. Four commissioners, Cassillis,
Winram(not5YrG. Winram), Baillie
and Wood were sent in March, 164^.
In August, 1649, Winram was again
despatched, having been substituted,
through jealousy of Argyll, for Lo-
thian, the husband of Argyll's niece
(Charles II and Scotland in 1650, ed.
Gardiner, Introd. xvi. Scot. Hist.
Soc.). He did not however sail until
October n, when Cromwell's victo-
ries in Ireland had become known,
and it was thought that Charles
would therefore be more likely to
give way to the demands of the
Scotch. He went first to Holland,
to consult with the English presby-
terians, Bunce, Titus, and others,
who were collected there ; and
reached Jersey about the third
week in November, see Charles II
and Scotland in 1650, 3. Finally he

went a third time, with Cassillis,
Lothian, Alexander Brodie pf that
Ilk, John Smith. Alexander Jaffray,
James Wood, John Livingstone and
George Hutcheson ; James Dal-
rymple being secretary to the com-
mission, id. 39, 87, 88 ; Baillie, iii.
458, 460, 510, 521, 524. Life of
John Livingstone, IVodrow Select Bio-
graphies, i. 172; Gardiner, Hist, of
Commonwealth, i. 204. Winram, who
was an extraordinary lord of Session
with the title of Lord Libberton,
fought at Dunbar and died of wounds
received there.

1 Upon this staunch and picturesque
representative of presbyterianism,
see the Lauderdale Papers, and Mis-
cellany for 1883 (Camd. Soc.), and
infra 256. Margaret Kennedy, his
daughter, was Burnet's first wife,
infra 193. Lauderdale was his
nephew. For Lothian see supra 28,
note.

9o

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. IV. turned to mirth and pleasure : he had the art of treating
persons or things in a ridiculous manner beyond any man
of the age : he possessed the young king with very ill
principles, both as to religion and morality, aand with
a very mean opinion of his father a, whose stiffness was a
frequent subject of his raillery. He prevailed with the
king to enter into a treaty with the Scots, though that was
vehemently opposed by almost all the rest that were about
him, who pressed him to adhere steadily to his father's
maxims and example1.

When the king came to the Hague, William duke of
Hamilton, and the earl of Lauderdale, who had left Scot-
land, entered into a great measure of favour and confidence

July, 1649. with him 2. The marquis of Montrose came likewise to him,

a interlined.

1 This unprincipled nobleman [in-
fra 182] is said to have betrayed the
king in Scotland, and to have given
Cromwell information of his coun-
sels ; which though it came to the
king's knowledge,was excused in this
companion of his debauches. See
Pepys, March 3, i66f . R. It is diffi-
cult to convict Buckingham of actual
treachery to Charles. But there is
no question as to the opinion of the
king's best counsellors before the
Restoration, who roundly accuse
him of private dealings with Crom-
well. See Nicholas Papers, ii. 206,
219, 253, 262, 345, and Pref. xiii. It
was he who betrayed, and thereby
rendered abortive, the king's in-
tended escape from the Presbyte-
rians to the Scottish Royalists (cf.
infra 100) in 1650, id. 201. In July
and August, 1652, he was in close
consultation with Lilburne; Cal. Clar.
St. P. ii. 141, 146. There are fre-
quent expressions in these papers of
Hyde's suspicion of and contempt
for Buckingham. In one place (id.

214) he declares that Buckingham
' would be Cromwell's groom to save
his estate.' In 1652 he made a i wild
pretence ' to the hand of the widowed
Princess of Orange (id. 124) ; and
previously to his marriage with
Fairfax's daughter — to secure which
it was felt that he must have gained
Cromwell's goodwill (id. iii. 372) —
he had aspired to an alliance with the
daughter of the Protector himself,
for which he was willing to ' re-
nounce the king his master.' ' But
that usurper had at least so much of
honour in him as to say he would
never give his daughter to one who
could be so very ungrateful to his
king.' Clarke, Life of James II, i.
435. Buckingham himself says
that his marriage with Fairfax's
daughter was a principal reason for
Cromwell's enmity, and that, had
Cromwell lived three days more, he
would have been executed. Fairfax
Correspondence, Civil Wars, ii. 253.

2 For this visit, see the Hamilton
Papers (Camd. Soc.), 237, &c.,

before the Restoration. 91

and undertook, if he would follow his counsels, to restore CHAP. IV.

him to his kingdoms by main force : but when the king

desired the prince of Orange to examine the methods which

he proposed, he entertained him with a a recital of his own

performances, and of the credit he was in among the people,

band said, the whole nation would rise, if he went over

though accompanied only with a page. The queen-mother

hated him mortally1 ; for when he came over from Scotland

to Paris, upon the king's requiring him to lay down arms,

she received him with such extraordinary favour as his

services cdid c deserve, and gave him a large supply in money

and in jewels, considering the straits to which she was then

reduced. But she heard that he had talked very indecently

of her favours to him ; which she herself told to lady

Susanna Hamilton, a daughter of duke Hamilton's 2,

from whom I had it. So she sent him word to leave Paris,

and would see him no more. He had wandered about

the courts of Germany, but was not so much esteemed as

he thought he deserved. He desired of the king nothing

but power to act in his name, with a supply in money, and

a letter recommending him to the king of Denmark for

a ship to carry him over, and for such arms as he could (Jan.i6f$)

spare him. With that the king gave him the garter. He

got first to Orkney, and from thence into the Highlands of

Scotland ; but could perform nothing of what he had

n such a vain struck out. b substituted for that he.

c did substituted for seemed to.

Memoirs of the Dukes of Hamilton, ment affecting the loyal party in

and the article on Lauderdale in the Ireland, and to give up his friends,

Diet. Nat. Biog. she had always urged upon him an

1 Upon the queen's attitude agreement with the Scots,

throughout the negotiations with 2 James, Duke of Hamilton,

the Scotch Commissioners, see There are frequent references to Lady

Charles II and Scotland in 1650, Susanna in the Lauderdale Papers.

19, 25, 30, 69, and especially her The scandal about Montrose and the

own letter, 107, in which she states queen-mother is completely refuted

that so long as Charles had refused by Napier, Memoirs of Montrose,

to take the covenant (against which ed. 1856, ii. 697-699.
she still protested) or any engage-

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. IV.

^ g

1650.

0'

53

Feb. 22,
i6if

undertaken. At last he was betrayed by one of those to
whom he trusted himself, Macleod of Assynt, and was
brought over a prisoner to Edinburgh1. He was carried
through the streets with all the infamy that brutal malice
could contrive, and in a few days he was hanged on a very
high gibbet, and his head and quarters were set up in divers
places of the kingdom. a His behaviour under all that
barbarous usage was as great and firm to the last, looking
on all that was done to him with a noble scorn, as the fury
of his enemies was black and universally detested a. This
raised a horror in all sober people against those who could
insult over such a man in misfortune. The triumph that
the preachers made on this occasion rendered them odious,
and made lord Montrose to be both much pitied and
lamented b. This happened while the Scots commissioners
were treating with the king at the Hague. The violent
party in Scotland were for breaking off the treaty upon it,
though by the date of Montrose's commission it appeared
to have been granted before the treaty was begun2: but it
was carried not to recall their commissioners. Nor could
the king on the other hand be prevailed on by his own
court to send them away upon this c cruelty to c a man who
had acted by his commission, and yet was so used. The

a added on opposite page. b than otherwise he coidd have been struck out.

c altered from usage of.

1 The charge of ' betrayal ' cannot
be sustained. Neil Macleod of
Assynt had followed Seaforth under
Montrose's banner in 1645, but,
thinking himself badly treated by
Seaforth, had gone over to the Earl of
Sutherland, a covenanter, who made
him Sheriff Depute of Assynt. In
delivering up Montrose, who surren-
dered himself in the belief that he
would be friendly, Macleod therefore
was doing his duty to Sutherland.
See Edinburgh Review, Jan. 1894,
' The last Campaign of Montrose] 194,
and Murdoch and Simpson's Ed.

(1893) of Wishart's Memoirs of James,
Marquis of Montrose, App. xiii. See
also Charles II and Scotland in 1650,
139, for a full account of Macleod's
trial, Feb. 1674, on other matters,
when the charge about Montrose was
thrown in as a makeweight, but was
apparently waived by the prosecution.
2 The treaty was begun in March
and concluded in May. Montrose's
defeat in Carbisdale, at the head of the
Kyle of Sutherland, was on April 17.
Upon the whole of this episode see
Charles II and Scotland in 1650.

before the Restoration. 93

treaty was quickly concluded. The king was in no condition CHAP. IV.

to struggle with them, but yielded to all their demands, of

taking the covenant, and suffering none to be about him

but such as took it l. He sailed home to Scotland in some June 24.

Dutch men of war with which the prince of Orange furnished July 4>

him, with all the stock of money and arms that his credit

could raise. That indeed would not have been very great

if the prince of Orange had not joined his own to it. The

duke of Hamilton and the earl of Lauderdale were suffered

to go home with him : but soon after his landing an order

came to put them from him. The king complained of this :

but duke Hamilton at parting told him, he must prepare

himself for things of a harder digestion : he said, at present

he could do him no service : the marquis of Argyll was then

in absolute credit : therefore he desired that he would study

to gain him entirely, and give him no cause of jealousy on

his account. This king Charles told myself, as a part of

duke Hamilton's character. The duke of Buckingham took

all the ways possible to gain Argyll and the ministers2: only

his dissolute course of life was excessive scandalous ; which

to their great reproach they connived at, because he advised

the king to put himself wholly in their hands. The king

wrought himself into as grave a deportment as he could :

he heard many prayers and sermons, some of a great length.

I remember on one fast day there were six sermons preached

without intermission. I was there my self, and not a little

weary of so tedious a service 3. The king was not allowed

so much as to walk abroad on | Sundays : and if at any MS. 28.

1 Hyde characterized this as a note infra 200.

' wild designe,' and maintained that 2 See Walker's Journal for all this,

nothing could justify the king's con- Buckingham alone of his English

cessions in Scotland, ' be the royalist friends was allowed to stay

success what it will.' Cal. Clar. St. P. with the king Cf. supra 90, note,

ii. 72. See the analysis of these He was, according to a letter in

events in Ranke, iii. 42. Charles Carte's Collection of Original Letters,

signed the two covenants on Sunday, 1739, 25, * a fast friend of Argyll.'

June 23, 3 Burnet was not then eight years

—^— ; on board ship at the mouth . , q

of the Spey, before landing. See

94

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. iv. time there had been any gaiety at court, such as dancing
or playing at cards, he was severely reproved for it. This
was managed with so much rigour and so little discretion,
that it contributed not a little to beget in him an aversion
to all sort of strictness in religion. All that had acted on
his father's side were ordered to keep at a great distance
from him : and because the common people shewed such
affection to the king, the crowds that pressed to see him
54 were also kept off from coming about him. Cromwell was
not idle : but seeing the Scots were calling home their king,
and knowing that from thence he might expect an invasion
into England, he resolved to prevent them, and so marched
into Scotland with his army. The Scots brought together
a very good army. The king was suffered to come once and
see it, but not to stay in it ; for they were afraid he might
gain too much upon the soldiers : so he was sent away 1.

The army was indeed one of the best that ever Scotland
had brought together, but it was ill commanded : for all
that had made defection from their cause, or that were
thought indifferent as to either side, which they called
detestable neutrality, were put out of commission. The
preachers thought it an army of saints, and seemed well
assured of success 2. They drew near Cromwell, who being
pressed by them retired towards Dunbar, where his ships
and provisions lay. The Scots followed him, and were
posted on a hill about a mile from thence, where there was
no attacking them. Cromwell was then in great distress,
and looked on himself as undone. There was no marching
towards Berwick, the ground was too narrow : nor could
he come back into the country without being separated
from his ships, and starving his army. The least evil
seemed to be to kill his horses, and put his army on board,

1 He joined the army on July 27,
1650, while Cromwell was at Mussel-
burgh, and was sent away to Dun-
fermline on August 2. Walker, 163.
Here he was watched by a guard of
honour under the command of Lorn.

2 From a letter of Loudoun to
Charles II (Charles II and Scotland
in 1650, 134) it seems that scarcity
of supplies and the difficulty of
keeping the army together hastened
the Scottish march.

before the Restoration. 95

and sail back to Newcastle ; which, in the disposition that CHAP. IV.
England was in at that time, would have been all their
destruction, for it would have occasioned an universal in-
surrection for the king. They had not above three days'
forage for their horses. So Cromwell called his officers to
a day of seeking the Lord, in their style. He loved to talk
much of that matter a all his life long afterwards a : he said,
he felt such an enlargement of heart in prayer, and such
quiet upon it, that he bade all about him take heart, for
God had certainly heard them, and would appear for them.
After prayer they walked in the earl of Roxburgh's gar-
dens, that lie under the hill : and by prospective glasses
they discerned a great motion in the Scotish camp : upon
which Cromwell said, God is delivering them into our hands,
they are coming down to us1. Leslie was in the chief com-
mand : but he had a committee of the states with him to
give him his orders, among whom Warriston was one 2.

a interlined.

1 Burnet is the only authority — 2 See Ranke's pertinent observa-

the ' watery source,' as Carlyle calls tion on this. 'In the Independent

him — for this story. Brodie, History camp too these spiritual impulses

of the British Empire, iv. 292, main- ruled supreme, but with this

tains that Cromwell's despatch to difference, that the generals them-

Lenthall, Speaker of the House of selves performed spiritual functions,

Commons, on Sept. 4, the day after and were the most zealous believers.'

the battle (Carlyle, Cromivell, cxl), iii. 49. Burnet is the chief autho-

is inconsistent with the account rity for this statement regarding

of his observing the Scots coming the interference of the Committee of

down the hill, and uttering this Estates ; but it is fully supported by

exclamation. He relies upon the Baillie, iii. in. Major White, in his

following passage. Speaking of the Report to Parliament, Sept. 10, says

evening before the battle, Cromwell that Leslie wanted to let part of

writes, 'The major-gen, and myself, Cromwell's army retreat on board

coming to the Earl of Roxburgh's ship, and then to fall on the rest ;

house, and observing this posture, while the ministers wished to attack

I told him I thought it did give us and capture the whole force. Leslie

an opportunity and advantage to himself, in his letter to Argyll

attempt upon the enemy,' &c. But (Lothian Papers, ii. 298), does not

there is no inconsistency, for Burnet ascribe his defeat directly to the

also ascribes the incident to the day interference of the ministers, but to

before the battle. See Gardiner, the ill conduct of his own officers. He

Commonwealth, i. 319-323. had expected a complete success. He

96

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. IV. These were weary of lying in the fields, and thought that
Leslie made not haste enough a to destroy those sectaries ;
for so they loved to call thema. He told them, by lying
there all was sure, but that by engaging into action with
gallant and desperate men all might be lost : yet they still
called on him to fall on. Many have thought that all this
was treachery, done on design to deliver up our army to
55 Cromwell ; some laying it upon Leslie, and others upon
my uncle. I am persuaded there was no treachery in it :
only Warriston was too hot, and Leslie was too cold, b and
yielded too easily to their humours, which he ought not to
have done b. They were all the night employed in coming

Sept 3, down the hill : and in the morning, before they were put
in order, Cromwell fell upon them. Two regiments stood
their ground, and were almost all killed in their ranks : the
rest did run in a most shameful manner : so that both
their artillery and baggage, and with these a great many
prisoners, were taken, some thousands in all. Cromwell

Sept. 7. upon this advanced to Edinburgh, where he was received
without any opposition ; and the castle, that might have
made a long resistance, did capitulate. So all the southern
part of Scotland came under contribution to Cromwell.
Stirling was the advanced garrison on the king's side ; he
himself retired to St. Johnston l. A parliament was called
c that sat for some time at Stirling, and for some time at
St. Johnston c, in which a full indemnity was passed, not
in the language of a pardon, but of an act of approbation :
dall that joined with Cromwell were declared traitors.
But now the ways of raising a new army were to be
thought on.

ft interlined. b interlined. c interlined.

1651.

b interlined.
d and struck out.

was formally exonerated from blame
— Warriston, Guthrie, Strachan,
and others dissenting — on Dec. 23,
1650. See Balfour's Annals, iv. 214 ;
CadwelPs Narrative (Carte's Collec-
tion of Original Letters, i. 382, 384) ;

Hodgson's Original Memoirs written
during the Great Civil War, Edinb.
1806.

1 He went to St. Johnston on
August 1 6, after signing the Declara-
tion mentioned on 99. Walker, 169.

before the Restoration. 97

A question had been proposed both to the committee CHAP. IV.
of states and to the commissioners of the kirk, whether in
this extremity those who had made defection, or had been
hitherto backward in the work, might not upon the pro-
fession of their repentance be received into public trusts,
and admitted to serve in the defence of their country 1. To
this, answers were distinctly given by two resolutions : the
one was, that they ought to be admitted to make profession
of their repentance : and the other was, that after such
profession made they might be received to defend and
serve their country.

Upon this, a great division followed in the kirk : those
who adhered to these resolutions were called the Public
Resolutioners : but against these some of those bodies pro-
tested, and they, together with those who adhered to them,
were called the Protesters. On the one hand it was said,
that every government might call out all that were under
its protection to its defence : this seemed founded on the
law of nature and of nations : and if men had been misled,
it was a strange cruelty to deny room for repentance : this
was contrary to the nature of God and the gospel, and was
a likely mean to drive them to despair : therefore, after
two years' time, it seemed reasonable to | allow them to MS. 29.
serve according to their birthright in parliament, or in
other hereditary offices, or in the army ; from all which 56
they had been excluded by an act made in the year 1649,
that ranged them in different classes, and was from thence
called the Act of Classes. But the Protesters objected
against all this, that to take in men of known enmity to
the cause was a sort of betraying it, because it was the

1 The Act of Classes, January 23, dalous in their conversation.'

1649, excluded from public office all According to Walker, i. 165, 4,000

who had been concerned in the experienced soldiers were driven

' Engagement,' for various periods from the army in obedience to this

according to their offences, as well Act shortly before Dunbar. This

as all l Malignants,' or enemies was now repealed. Burton, chaps.

of .the Covenant, and all persons 74, 75, and Baillie, Letters and

' openly profane and grossly scan- Journals, iii. 80 et seq.

VOL. I. H

98

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. IV. putting it in their power to betray it ; that to admit them

to a profession of repentance was a profanation, and a

mocking of God l : it was visible they were willing to com-
ply with these terms, though against their conscience, only
to get into the army : nor could they expect a blessing
from God on an army so constituted. And as to this par-
ticular they had great advantage ; for this mock penitence
was indeed matter of great scandal. When these resolu-
1650. tions were passed with this protestation, a great many of
the five western counties, Clydesdale, Renfrew, Ayr, Gal-
loway, and Nithisdale, met, and formed an association
apart, both against the army of sectaries, and against this
new defection in the kirk party 2. They drew a remonstrance
against all the proceedings in the treaty with the king,
when, as they said, it was visible by the commission that
he granted to Montrose that his heart was not sincere :
and they were also against the tendering him the covenant,
when they had reason to believe he took it not with a
resolution to maintain it, since his whole deportment and
private conversation shewed a secret enmity to the work
of God : and, after an invidious enumeration of many

1 See Sir J. Turner's Memoirs, 95,
on this ' mock penitence,' and the
story in Cockburn's Remarks, 52.
In the Records of the Presbytery of
St. Andrews (Abbotsford Club)
there is the following entry for
Dec. 23, 1650 : ' The quhilk day the
Presbytery received an Act of the
commission of the General Assembly
dated Perth, Dec. 14, 1650, referring
to them John, Earl of Lauderdale,
that they may try the evidence of his
repentance for his accession to the
late unlawful engadgement against
the Kingdom of England, and that
thereafter they may receive him to
public satisfaction for that offence.'
Crawford had to do the same before
the Presbytery of Cupar. They had
also to disavow all complicity in the

' Start ; ' 100 note.

2 ' Lambert has lately fallen upon
the western forces and routed them,
which next to Cromwell were the
greatest enemies we had in the
world. I hope now we shall agree,
and joyne to make a considerable
army, since they are defeated that
were the greatest hindrance to it.'
Duke of Buckingham to the Marquis
of Newcastle, 1650, Dec. 5. Portland
MSS., H. M. C. Report, xiii, App. ii.
137. These western protestors
were the ' Remonstrants.' See the
account of the state of parties in
Scotland in the Weekly Intelligencer,
Oct. 22-29 (Brit. Mus. E. 615, 8),
quoted in the note to Charles II
and Scotland in 1650, 149.

before the Restoration. 99

particulars, they imputed the shameful defeat at Dunbar to CHAP. IV.
their prevaricating in a these things a; and concluded with
a desire, that the king might be excluded from any share
in the administration of the government, and that his cause
might be put out of the state of the quarrel with the army
of the sectaries. This was brought to the committee of
estates at St. Johnston, and was severely inveighed against
by sir Thomas Nicolson, the king's advocate or attorney
general there, who had been till then a zealous man of their
party : but he had lately married my sister, and my father
had great influence on him. He prevailed, and the remon-
strance was condemned as divisive, factious, and scandalous 1 :
but that the people might not be too much moved with
these things, a declaration was prepared to be set out by Aug. 16,
the king for the satisfying of them. In it there were many
hard things 2. The king owned the sin of his father's
marrying into an idolatrous family : he acknowledged the
bloodshed in the late wars lay at his father's door: he
expressed a deep sense of his own ill education, and the
prejudices he had drunk in against the cause, of which he
was now very sensible : he confessed all the former part of 57

* substituted for the ivork of God.

1 ' Besides these there is also a before Dunbar. Walker's Historical
3 party in Scotland, rigid for the Discourse, 170, where the Declara-
kirk, if not halfe independant, one tion may be read in full ; Clarendon
Car and Strawhan as cheefe, with St. P. vol. 40, f. 80. See especially
about 4000 men in the west of the Loudoun's letter urging Charles
country. These have lately had to make this declaration, with the
some treatys with Cromwell, and threat in case of non-compliance ;
remonstrated something (which Charles II and Scotland in 1650, 131.
sounds ugly) about the last king, as Privately Charles expressed his
if he deserved death, and only the view that, so far at least as Ireland
manner of inflicting it was not justi- was concerned, he did not feel
fiable. The assembly at St. Johns- bound by the Declaration. Id. 143-
ton cry out upon this doctrine, Another document, still more ex-
and would call the authors to ac- plicit, to which Charles gave way
count or threaten excommunication.' without dispute, was prepared be-
Charles II and Scotland in 1650, 152. tween the signing of the one men-

2 This is wrongly placed. It was tioned and the battle of Dunbar.
on August 1 6, 1650, at Dunfermline, Walker, 178.

H 2

TOO

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. IV. his life to have been a course of enmity to the work of
God : he repented of his commission to Montrose, and
of every thing he had done that gave offence : and with
solemn protestations he affirmed, that he was now sincere
in his declaration, and that he would adhere to it to the
end of his life both in Scotland, England, and Ireland.

The king Was very uneasy when this was brought to
him He said, he could never look his mother in athe
face if he passed it. But when he was told it was neces-
sary for his affairs, he resolved to swallow the pill without
farther chewing it. So it was published, but had no good
effect : for neither side believed him sincere in it l. It was
thought a strange imposition to make him load his father's
memory in such a manner. But, while the king was thus
beset with the high and more moderate kirk parties, the
old cavaliers sent to him, offering that if he would cast
himself into their hands they would meet him near Dundee
with a great body. Upon this the king, growing weary of

Oct. 1650. the sad life he led, made his escape in the night, and came
to the place appointed : but it was a vain undertaking, for
he was met by a very inconsiderable body at Clova, the
place of rendezvous. Those at St. Johnston being troubled
at this, sent colonel Montgomery after him, who came up,
and pressed him to return very rudely : so the king came
back 2. But this had a very good effect. The government
saw now the danger of using him ill, which might provoke
him to desperate courses : after that, he was used as well

a his in MS.

1 After Dunbar, at St. Johnston's,
he ' was daily told both in Pra3^ers and
Sermons of the sins of His Father's
House, His Mother's Idolatry, and
theirfears of his Reality.' Walker,i87.

2 Oct. 3, 4, 1650. This incident
was known as ' The Start.' Clova
is at the head of Glen Esk in the
north of Forfarshire. Walker stated
that Charles's intention was betrayed
by Buckingham andWilmot. Nicholas

Papers, ii. 201. Walker's own account
of the whole incident (Journal, 196),
differs from that in the text in
some respects, and should be com-
pared with the report given by
Henry Nash, Charles II and Scot-
land in 1650, 149. See the epi-
grammatic remark upon him, id. 45,
'rather obedient to the impulse of
his genius than to the necessity and
love of his subjects.'

before the Restoration.

101

as that kingdom, in so ill a state, was capable of. He saw CHAP. IV.
the necessity of courting the marquis of Argyll, and there-
fore he made him great offers : at last he talked of marry-
ing his daughter1. Argyll was cold and backward: he
saw the king's heart lay not to him : so he looked on all
offers but as so many snares. His son, the lord Lorn, was
captain of the guards : and he made his court more dex-
terously ; for he brought all persons that the king had
a mind to speak with at all hours to him, and was in all

1 When the king came to Scot-
land, the Marquis of Argyll made
great professions of duty to him,
but said he could not serve him as
he desired, unless he gave some
undeniable proof of a fixed resolution
to support the presbyterian party,
which he thought would be best
done by marrying into some family
of quality, that was known to be
entirely attached to that interest ;
which would in great measure take
off the prejudice both kingdoms had
to him upon his mother's account,
who was extremely odious to all
good protestants ; and thought his
own daughter would be the proper-
est match for him, not without some
threats, if he did not accept the
offer; which the king told colonel
Legge, who was the only person
about him that he could trust with
the secret. The colonel said it was
plain the marquis looked upon his
majesty to be absolutely in his
power, or he durst not have made
such a proposal ; therefore it would be
necessary to gain time, till he could
get out of his hands, by telling him,
in common decency he could come
to no conclusion in an affair of that
nature before he had acquainted the
queen his mother, who was always
known to have a very particular
esteem for the marquis and his
family, but would never forgive such

an omission. But that was an an-
swer far from satisfying the marquis,
who suspected colonel Legge had
been the adviser, and committed him
next day to the castle of Edinburgh,
where he continued till the king
made his escape from St. Johnston,
upon which he was released ; the
marquis finding it necessary to give
the king more satisfaction than he
had done before that time. D.
Dartmouth s story is impossible.
Legge was in prison in England
from July 1649 to May 1651, and
probably later. Diet Nat. Biog.
xxxii. 415, and authorities there
referred to. ' William Murray and
Sir Robert Murray were negotiators
[with Argyll] for the king, who, it
is thought, put him in hopes that the
king might marry his daughter.'
Life of Livingstone, Wodrow Soc.,
Select Biog. 170. Titus (supra 76
note acted as the agent between
Charles, Argyll, the queen- mother,
and Jermyn. See especially the
instructions to him from the king
and Argyll, and Henrietta-Maria's
clear and clever reply to Charles,
dissuading him from thinking of the
match at present in Hillier's King
Charles in the Isle of Wight, 325-331.
The words of the text, that Argyll
was cold and backward, require
modification from these documents.

102

A Summary of Affairs

165^.

CHAP. IV. respects not only faithful but zealous. Yet this was sus-
pected as a collusion between the father and the son 1. The
king was crowned on the first of January2 : and there he
again renewed the covenant : and now all people were
admitted to come to him, and to serve in the army. The
two armies lay peaceably in their winter quarters ; but when
the summer came on, a body of the English passed the
Frith, and landed in Fife. So the king, having got up all
the force he had expected, resolved on a march into Eng-
land. Scotland could not maintain another year's war.
This was a desperate resolution : but there was nothing
else to be done 3.

I will not pursue the | relation of the march to Wor-
cester, nor the total defeat given the king's army on the
same day in which Dunbar fight had been fought the year
before, on the ^rd of September. These things are so well
known, as is also the king's escape, that I can add nothing
to the common relations that have been over and over
again made of them. At the same time that Cromwell
followed the king into England, he left Monk in Scotland,
with an army sufficient to reduce the rest of the kingdom.
The town of Dundee made a rash and ill considered
resistance : it was after a few days' siege taken by storm :
much blood was shed, and the town was severely plundered.
No other place made any resistance 4. I remember well of

58

MS. 30.

Sept. 3,
1651.

Sept. i,
1651.

1 The practice of father and eldest
son taking opposite sides, in order
that in any event the estates might
remain in the family, was common
among the Scotch nobility at this
time, as in the '1715' and ' 1745.'
Cf. infra 232. But see Firth's Scot-
land and the Commonwealth (Scottish
Hist. SocO, Introd. and 134-275.
This work is of the utmost importance
for Scottish affairs from August,
1651, to 1664.

2 See supra 93 and infra 196, where
the present existence of the two
copies signed by Charles, the one at

the mouth of the Spey on June
23, 1650, the other at his corona-
tion, Jan. i, 1651, is practically
proved.

3 Upon the hopes of support in
England itself, as well as from
Holland and the Duke of Lorraine,
see Ranke, iii. 54.

* Monk had between 5,000 and
6,000 men. Stirling capitulated on
August 14, and the Scotch committee
of estates was captured on August
27. The storming of Dundee was
on Sept. i, 1651. About 500 of the
garrison were killed, and, as Monk

before the Restoration.

103

the coming of three regiments to Aberdeen. There was CHAP. IV.
an order and discipline, and a face of gravity and piety
among them, that amazed all people. Most of them were
independents and anabaptists : they were all gifted men,
and preached as they were moved ; but they never dis-
turbed the public assemblies in the churches but once.
They came and reproached the preachers for laying things
to their charge that were false. I was then present : the
debate grew very fierce : at last they drew their swords,
but there was no hurt done : yet Cromwell displaced the
governor for not punishing this.

When the low countries in Scotland were thus reduced,
some of the more zealous of the nobility went to the
Highlands in the year 1653. The earl of Glencairn, a grave 1653.
and sober man, but vain and haughty, got the tribe of the
Macdonalds to declare for the king1. To these the lord
Lorn came with about a thousand men : but the jealousy
of the father made the son be suspected. The marquis
of Argyll had retired into his country when the king
marched into England, and did not submit to Monk till the
year '$22. Then he received a garrison: but lord Lorn
surprised a ship that was sent about with provisions to it,
which helped to support their little ill-formed army. Many
gentlemen came to them : and almost all the good horses
of the kingdom were stolen, and carried up to them. They
made a body of about 3,000 : of these they had about 500
horse. They endured great hardships ; for those parts
were not fit to entertain men that had been accustomed to
live softly. The earl of Glencairn's pride had almost
spoiled all : for he took much upon him, and a upon some

a interlined.

wrote to Cromwell,' the stubbornness
of the people enforced the soldiers
to plunder the town.' See Mr.
Firth's article on Monk in the Diet.
Nat. Biog. and Ludlow's Memoirs,
i. 282, and Scotland and the Common-
wealth Introd. i. and 1-13.

1 He had a commission from

Charles to command any force which
he might gather.

2 Monk was absent from Scotland
from Feb. 165^ to the spring of
1654. During the interval he was
one of the three ' generals ' in com-
mand of the fleet against the Dutch,
being Admiral of the White.

104

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. IV. suspicion he a ordered lord Lorn to be clapt up, who had
notice of it, and prevented it by an escape : otherwise they
had fallen to cut one another's throats, instead of marching
against the enemy l. The earl of Balcarres, aa virtuous and
knowing man but somewhat morose in his humour a, went
59 also among them 2. They differed in their counsels : Glen-
cairn was for falling into the low country, and he began to
fancy he should be another Montrose. Balcarres, on the
other hand, was for their keeping in their fastnesses, that
made a shew of a body for the king, which they were to
keep up in some reputation as long as they could, till they
could see what assistance the king might be able to procure
them from beyond sea, of men, money, and arms : whereas
if they went out of those fast grounds, they could not hope
to stand long before such a veteran and well disciplined
army as Monk had ; and if they met with the least check,
their tumultuary body would soon melt away.

Among others, one sir Robert Moray, that had married
the earl of Balcarres's sister 3, came among them. He had
served in France, where he had got into such a degree of
favour with cardinal Richelieu, that few strangers were ever
so much considered by him as he was 4. He was raised to

a interlined.

1 See the account of all this in
Baillie, iii. 251 255.

2 Balcarres was a man of the
highest personal character, in great
repute with both Charles and Hyde.
Clar. St. P., passim. He was an
intimate friend of Robert Moray, and
the correspondence between them
while in exile is of extreme interest
and beauty. Scottish Review, Jan.
1885. He died at Breda, August 30,
1659, of grief, Baillie hints (iii. 437),
at the defeat of Sir George Booth.
His wife, Lady Anna Mackenzie,
second daughter of the Earl of Sea-
forth, whose second husband was
the Duke of Argyll executed by

James II, was even more noted for
ability, refinement, and courage. See
her Life, by the late Earl of Craw-
ford and Lindesay (1868). Cf. the
Balcarres Memoirs (Bannatyne Club\

3 i. e. Sophia, daughter of David
Lindsay, first Lord Balcarres.

4 And with Mazarin, from whom
in 1658 he claimed a debt of 130,000
livres. For the varied career of
this most remarkable and attractive
man (whose name is invariably spelt
' Moray ' by himself and his corre-
spondents) previous to the Restora-
tion, see the Diet. Nat. Biog. and the
authorities there cited ; and for the
post-Restoration period the Lander-

before the Restoration. 105

be a colonel there, and came over for recruits when the CHAP. iv.
king was with the Scots' army at Newcastle. There he
grew into high favour with the king, and had laid a design
for his escape, of which I have given an account in duke
Hamilton's memoirs : he was the most universally beloved
and esteemed by men of all sides and sorts, of any man
I have ever known in my whole life. He was a pious man,
and in the midst of armies and courts he spent many hours
a day in a devotion which was of a most elevating strain.
He had gone through the easy parts of mathematics, and
knew the history of nature beyond any man I ever yet
knew. He had a genius much like Peiresk's, as he is
described by Gassendi 1. He was afterwards the first former
of the Royal Society, and its first president ; and while he
lived, he was the life and soul of that body 2. He had an
equality of temper in him that nothing could alter, and was
in practice the only stoic I ever knew. He had a great
tincture of one of their principles, for he was much for
absolute decrees. He had a most diffused love to all man-

dale Papers (Camd. Soc.), i and ii parliament at Aix, written by the

passim, where the character given learned Petrus Gassendus, englished

him by Burnet is fully borne out. by W. Rand, Doctor of Physick,

See also the many notices of him in 1657' (dedicated to John Evelyn ,

Pepys and Evelyn, and the article 8vo. Gassendi was Professor of

uponhis correspondence with Kincar- Mathematics to the King of France,

din in Scottish Review, Jan. 1885. He and was born in 1580, or 1592

will often occur later in the History. (Larousse, Diet, du xixm<i siecle, viii.

Every known incident in his career 1057), d. 1695. See the list of

bears out his own words to Kincar- his MSS. in the English translation,

din in 1658. ' It hath been my study The original work (not included

now thirty-one years to understand in Larousse's article) was published

and regulate my passions ; the 1641.

whole story of my progress is this.' 2 Sir R. Moray was the President

He had 'no stomach for publick before the incorporation, having been

employments,' though extremely elected for the first time March 6,

able in them ; and his independence 1661 ; but William, second Lord-

of character was well put by Charles Brouncker, was the first President

II, 'he is head of his own church.' under the Charter, dated July 15,

1 ' The Mirrour of true nobility 1662, and was confirmed by election

and gentility, being the life of the April 22, 1663. Birch, //w/ Roy.Soc.

renowned Nicolaus Claudius Fabri- (1756)i ll and Records of the Royal

cius, Lord of Peiresk, senator of the Society. See notes infra 342-344-

io6

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. IV. kind, and he delighted in every occasion of doing good,
which he managed with great discretion and zeal. He had
a superiority of genius and comprehension to most men :
and had the plainest, but withal the softest, way of re-
proving, chiefly young people, for their faults, that I ever
met with. And upon this account, as well as upon all the
care and affection he expressed to me, I have ever reckoned
that, next to my father, I owed more to him, than to any other
man. Therefore I have enlarged upon his character ; and
yet I am sure I have rather said too little than too much.
MS. 31. Sir Robert Moray was in such credit in that little army,
that lord Glencairn took a strange course to break it, and
to ruin him. A letter was pretended to be found at
Antwerp, as writ by him to William Murray of the bed-
chamber, that had been whipping-boy to king Charles the
first, and upon that had grown up to a degree of favour and
confidence that was very particular, and, as many thought,
was as ill used, as it was little deserved ]. He had a lewd
60 creature there,, whom he turned off: and she, to be revenged
on him, framed this plot against him. This ill-forged letter
gave an account of a bargain sir Robert had made with
Monk for killing the king, which was to be executed by
aMr. Murray a: so he b prayed himb in his letter to make
haste and dispatch it. This was brought to the earl of
Glencairn : so sir Robert was severely questioned upon it,
and put in arrest : and it was spread about through a rude
army that he intended to kill the king, hoping, it seems,
that upon that some of these wild people, believing it, would
have fallen upon him without using any forms. But upon
this occasion sir Robert practised in a very eminent manner
his true Christian philosophy, without shewing so much as
a cloud in his whole behaviour.

substituted for sir Robert, erased.

altered from was prayed.

1 Created Earl of Dysart, father
of the second wife of the Duke of
Lauderdale ; see supra 30, note, and
f. 244. On the subject of the forged

letter there is a good deal in the
Clar. St. P. for 1654. See also the
Nicholas Papers, ii. 27, 56.

before the Restoration.

107

The earl of Balcarres left the Highlands, and went to the CHAP. IV
king, and shewed him the necessity of sending a military
man to command that body, to whom they would submit
more willingly than to any of the nobility. Middleton was
sent over, who was a gallant man, and a good officer. He 1653.
had first served on the parliament side : but he turned over
to the king, and was taken at Worcester fight, but he made
his escape out of the Tower x. He, upon his coming over,
did for some time lay the heats that were among the High-
landers, and made as much of that face of an army for
another year as was possible.

Drummond 2 was sent by him to Paris with an invitation
to the king to come among them : for they had assurances
sent them that the whole nation was in a disposition to rise
with them : and England was beginning to grow weary of
their new government, the army and the parliament being

1 Middleton was originally a pike-
man in Hepburn's regiment in
France. He served in the Thirty
Years' War, and afterwards for the
Parliament under the Earl of Essex
until 1644 ; he subsequently fought
with David Leslie against Montrose,
by whose soldiers his father had
been murdered. (Wishart's Deeds of
Montrose, ed. Murdoch and Simpson,
Pref. Ivi. postscript^} He was one
of the ' engagers,' commanded the
cavalry in Hamilton's army in 1648,
and was taken prisoner at the battle
of Preston. He duly ' repented ' of
the engagement, but in 1650 was at
the head of a royalist force in the
Highlands, and was excommunicated
byjames Guthrie,an affront which he
did not forget (infra 205, 227). On
Jan. 12, 1651, he did public penance
at Dundee. In the Worcester cam-
paign he commanded the cavalry,
and was taken prisoner in the battle ;
escaped in his wife's clothes, and
joined Charles II in Paris. Accord-
ing to Clarendon (Clar. St. P.,

March 28, 1653) the king had
thought of joining him when, as
mentioned in the text, he again went
over to command in the Highlands.
His commission from Charles as
Lieutenant-General of the king in
Scotland is dated June 25, 1652, but
he did not arrive until early in 1654,
Glencairn being meanwhile in com-
mand. For an account of this expedi-
tion see Cat. Oar. St. P. ii. 37 '• He
was created an earl in 1656, and at the
Restoration came back in the same
ship with Charles. Laing's Hist.
Scotl. ii. 9 (ed. 1800) ; Burton, vii.
416. From Sir James Turner's
Memoirs, 131, we find that in i6f$
Turner was sent by the loyal lords
of Scotland to pray that the king
would name some other general for
them than Middleton.

'2 See supra 70, and ff. 214,
240, 288, 375. He was sent by
Charles to Scotland 'with instruc-
tions for Glencairn and Balcarres in
November, 1653. Scotland and the
Commonwealth, 247.

io8

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. IV. on ill terms. The English were also engaged in a war with
1651-54. the States, who upon that account might be inclined to
assist the king to give a diversion to their enemies' forces.
Drummond told me, that upon his coming to Paris he was
called to the little council that was then about the king :
and when he had delivered his message, a chancellor Hyde a l
asked him how the king would be accommodated if he came
among them ? He answered, not so well as was fitting, but
they would all take care of him to furnish him with every
thing that was necessary 2. He wondered that the king did
not check the chancellor in this demand : for he said, it
looked strange to him, that when they were all hazarding
their lives to help him to a crown, he should be concerned
for accommodation. He was sent back with good words
and a few kind letters. In the end of the year 1654 Morgan
marched into the Highlands, and had a small engagement
with Middleton 3, which broke that whole matter, of which
61 all people were grown weary ; for they had no prospect of
success, and the low countries were so overrun with rob-
beries on the pretence of going to assist the Highlanders,
that there was an universal joy at the dispersing of that
little unruly army. After this the country was kept in
great order: some castles in the Highlands had garrisons
put in them, that were so careful in their discipline, and so
exact as to their rules, that in no time the Highlands were
kept in better order than during the usurpation. There
was a considerable force of about seven or eight thousand
men kept in Scotland : these were paid exactly, and strictly
disciplined. The pay of the army brought so much money

a substituted for Clarendon.

July (?),
1654.

1 Hyde was not created Lord
Chancellor until Jan. 1658.

2 Clarendon Rebellion, xiv. 108, 109.

3 Burton, vii. 328. Burton relies
upon the Military Memoirs of the
Great Civil War, being the Military
Memoirs of Jo/in Gzvynne, and an

account of the Earl of Glencairne's
expedition, &c , 4to., 1822. Ed. by Sir
W. Scott. Middleton returned to
the exiled court about Feb. 1655 after
the defeat at Lochgarry in July (?),
1654, leaving Glencairn to make
terms with Monk.

before the Restoration.

109

into the kingdom, that it continued all that while in a very CHAP. IV.

flourishing state. Cromwell built three a citadels, at Leith, —

Ayr, and Inverness, besides many lesser forts. There was

good justice done, and vice was suppressed and punished l ;

so that we always reckon those eight years of usurpation

a time of great peace and prosperity2. There was also

a sort of union of the three kingdoms in one parliament, 1654.

a great struck out.

1 < A man,' boasted one of the
Council, ' may ride all Scotland over
with a switch in his hand and £100
in his pocket, which he could not
have done these 500 years.' Bur-
ton's Diary, iv. 168.

2 Baillie, iii. 249, gives the follow-
ing account of the condition of Scot-
land in the year 1654. ' As for our
state, this is its case. Our nobility
are well near all wracked. Dukes
Hamilton, the one executed, the
other slain; their estate forfeited; one
part of it gifted to English soldiers ; the
rest will not pay the debt; little left to
the heretrix ; almost the whole name
undone with debt. Huntly executed ;
his sons all dead but the youngest :
there is more debt on the house than
the land can pay. Lennox is living as
a man buried in his house of Cobham.
Douglas and his son Angus are
quiet men, of no respect. Argyll,
almost drowned in debt, in friend-
ship with the English, but in hatred
with the country. He courts the re-
monstrants, who were and are averse
from him. Chancellor Loudoun lives
like an outlaw about Athol ; his lands
comprised for debt, under a general
very great disgrace. Marischal,
Rothes, Eglinton and his three sons,
Crawford, Lauderdale, and others,
prisoners in England ; and their
lands all either sequestrated or for-
faulted, and gifted to English soldiers.
Balmerino suddenly dead, and his

son, for publick debt, comprisings,
and captions, keeps not the causey.
Warriston, having refunded much of
what he got for places, li^es privily
in a hard enough condition, much
hated by the most, and neglected by
all, except the remonstrants, to whom
he is guide. Our criminal judica-
tories are all in the hands of the
English ; our civil courts also ; only
some of the remonstrants are ad-
joined with them/ At the same
reference see a list of Cromwell's
garrisons, with a description of the
1 lethargick fear and despaire ' which
hung over the land. Again, in
a letter dated November 1658 (id.
387). two months after the death of
Cromwell, he writes thus : ' The
country lies very quiet ; it is exceed-
ing poor; trade is nought: the
English have all the money. Our
noble families are almost gone :
Lennox has little in Scotland unsold ;
Hamilton's estate, except Arran and
the barony of Hamilton, is sold ;
Argyll can pay little annual rent for
700,000 or 800,000 merks ; and he is
no more drowned in debt than in
publick hatred, almost of all, both
Scots and English ; the Gordons are
gone ; the Douglasses are little
better; Eglinton and Glencairn on
the brink of breaking ; many of our
chief families estates are cracking,
nor is there any appearance of any
human relief for the time.'

no

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. IV. where Scotland had its representatives. The marquis of
Argyll went up one of our commissioners l.

The next scene I must open relates to the church, and
the heats raised in it by the Public Resolutions and the
Protestation made against them. New occasions of dispute

MS. 32. arose. A general assembly was in course to | meet, and
1653. sit at St. Andrews : so the Commission of the Kirk writ
a circular letter to all the presbyteries, setting forth all the
grounds of their Resolutions, and complaining of those who
had protested against them ; upon which they desired that
they would choose none of those who adhered to that
Protestation to represent them in the next Assembly. This
was only an advice, and had been frequently practised in
the former years : but now it was highly complained of, as
a limitation on the freedom of elections, which inferred
a nullity on all their proceedings : so the Protesters renewed
their protestation against this meeting upon a higher point,
disowning that authority which hitherto they had magnified
as the highest tribunal in the church, in which they thought
Christ was on his throne. Upon this a great debate
followed, and many books were written in the course of
several years. The public men said, this was the destroying
of presbytery, if the lesser number did not submit to the
greater : it was a sort of prelacy, if it was pretended that
votes ought rather to be weighed than counted : parity was
the essence of their constitution : and in this all people
saw they had clearly the better of the argument. The
Protesters urged for themselves, that, since all protestants
rejected the pretence of infallibility, the major part of the
62 church might fall into error, in which case the lesser number
could not be bound to submit to them : they complained
of the many corrupt clergymen who were yet among them,
who were leavened with the old leaven, and did on all
occasions shew what was still at heart, notwithstanding all

1 In 1654 Scotland sent thirty
members — twenty for the counties,
and ten for the burghs— to the parlia-

ment dissolved by Cromwell Jan.
22, 1655. See Scotland and the Com-
monwealth, 208 n.

before the Restoration.

in

their outward compliance : for the episcopal clergy, that CHAP. iv.
had gone into the covenant and presbytery to hold their
livings, struck in with great heat to inflame the contro-
versy : and it appeared very visibly, that presbytery, if not
held in order by the civil power, could not be long kept in
quiet. If in the supreme court of judicature the majority
did not conclude the matter, it was not possible to keep up
their beloved parity. It was confessed that in doctrinal points
the lesser number was not bound to submit to the greater :
but in the matters of mere government it was impossible
to maintain the presbyterian form on any other bottom.

As this debate grew hot, and they were ready to break
out into censures on both sides, some were sent down from
the commonwealth of England to settle Scotland : of these Oct. 1651.
sir Henry Vane was one1. The Resolutioners were known
to have been more in the king's interests : so they were
not so kindly looked on as the Protesters. Some of the
English junto moved, that pains should be taken to unite
the two parties, but Vane opposed this with much zeal : he
said, would they heal the wound that they had given them-
selves, which weakened them so much ? The setting them
at quiet could have no other effect but to heal and unite
them in their opposition to their authority. He therefore
moved that they might be left at liberty to fight out their
own quarrels, and thereby be kept in a greater dependence
on the temporal authority, when both sides were forced to
make their appeal to it. So it was resolved to suffer them
to meet still in their presbyteries and synods, but not in
general assemblies, which had a greater face of union and
authority 2.

This advice was followed : so the division went on.
Both sides studied, when any church became vacant, to get
a man of their own party to be chosen to succeed in the
election : and upon these occasions many tumults happened.
In some of them stones were thrown, and many were

1 October, 165 1. Ludlows Memoirs, 2 The last meeting of the General

i. 298 ; Whitelocke, 487. Assembly was in July 1653.

112

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. IV. wounded, to the great scandal of religion. In all these
disputes the Protesters were the fiercer side : for being less
in number, they studied to make that up with their fury.
In one point they had the others at a great advantage,
with relation to their new masters, who required them to
give over praying for the king. The Protesters were weary
of doing it, and submitted very readily : but the others
63 stood out longer, and said, it was a duty lying on them by
the covenant, so they could not let it fall. Upon that the
English council set out an order, that such as should con-
tinue to pray for the king should be denied the help of law
to recover their tithes, or, as they are called there, their
stipends. This touched them in a sensible point ; but,
that they might seem to act upon their own authority, they
did enact it in their presbyteries, that since all duties did
not oblige at all times, therefore considering the present
juncture, in which the king could not protect them, they

MS. 33. resolved to discontinue that |a piece of duty a. This exposed
them to much censure, since such a carnal consideration as
the force of law for their benefices, (which all regard at too
much, though few will own it.) seemed to be that which
determined them.

This great breach among them being rather encouraged
than suppressed by those who were in power, all the
methods imaginable were used by the Protesters to raise
their credit among the people. They preached often and
very long, and seemed to carry their devotions to a greater
sublimity than others did 1. Their constant topic was the
sad defection and corruption of the judicatories of the church,
and they often proposed several expedients for purging it2.

n in doing their duty struck out.

1 In his advice to young preachers
John Livingstone, .SW. Biog.(Wodrow
Soc.), i. 288, lays down that a sermon
should be ' ordinarily for not beyond
the hour.'

* Baillie, iii. 245, says : ' The
moderator's sermon ran on the

necessity of taking up the too long
neglected work of purging. The
man's vehemency in this, and in his
prayer, a strange kind of sighing,
the like whereof I had never heard,
as a pythonising out of the belly of
a second person, made me amazed.'

before the Restoration. 113

The truth was, they were more active, and their perform- CHAP. IV.
ances were livelier, than the Public men. They were in
nothing more singular than in their communions. In many
places the sacrament was discontinued for a several years,
where they thought the magistracy, or the more eminent
of the parish, were engaged in what they called the defec-
tion, which was much more looked at than the scandals
given by bad lives. But where the greater part of the
parish was more sound, they gave the sacrament with a new
and unusual solemnity. On the Wednesday before they
held a fast day, with prayers and sermons for about eight
or ten hours together : on the Saturday they had two or
three preparation sermons : and on the Lord's day they
had so very many, that the action continued above twelve
hours in some places : and all ended with three or four
sermons on Monday for thanksgivings. A great many
ministers were brought together from several parts, and
high pretenders would have gone forty or fifty miles to
a noted communion. The crowds were far beyond the
capacity of their churches, or the reach of their voices,
so at the same time they had sermons in two or three
different places : and all was performed with great shews
of zeal. They had stories of many signal conversions
that were wrought upon these occasions ; whereas others
were better believed, who told as many stories of much
lewdness among the multitudes that did then run together.
It is scarce credible what an effect this had among the
people, to how great a measure of knowledge they were
brought, and how readily they could pray extempore, and 64
talk of divine matters. All this tended to raise the credit
of the Protesters. The Resolutioners tried to imitate them
in these practices : but they were not thought so spiritual,
nor so ready at them : so the other had the chief following.

a substituted for many.

Of the sermon also preached by an with Swift's, that the preacher ran

English independent on the spiritual out above all their understandings,

life Baillie's judgement accorded See also id. iii. 258.
VOL. I. I

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. IV. Where the judicatories of the church were near an equality
of the men of both sides, there were perpetual janglings
among them : at last they proceeded to deprive men of
both sides, as they were the majority in the judicatories :
but because the possession of the church and the benefice
was to depend on the orders of the temporal courts, both
sides made their application to the privy council that

Aug. 1655. Cromwell had set up in Scotland1 : and they were by them
referred to Cromwell himself. So they sent deputies up to
London. The Protesters went in greater numbers : they
came nearer both to the principles and to that temper that
prevailed in the army : so they were looked on as the better
men, on whom, by reason of the first rise of the difference,
the government might more certainly depend : whereas the
others were considered as more in the king's interests.

The Resolutioners sent up one Sharp 2, who had been
long in England, and was an active and eager man : he
had a very small proportion of learning, and was but an
indifferent preacher: but having some acquaintance with
the presbyterian ministers of London, whom Cromwell was
then courting much by reason of their credit in the city,
he was, by an error that proved fatal to the whole party,
sent up in their name to London ; where he continued for
some years soliciting their concerns, and making himself
known to all sorts of people. He seemed more than
ordinary zealous for presbytery. And, as Cromwell was
then designing to make himself king3, Dr. Wilkins4 told
me he often said to him, no temporal government could
have a sure support without a national church that adhered
to it, and he thought England was capable of no other
national constitution but of episcopacy ; to which, he told
me, he did not doubt but Cromwell would have turned,

1 Ludlow's Mem,, i. 394. Lord
Broghill was appointed President.

2 See infra 165.

s Ludlow, i. 344, mentions the
statement of Peters, that the idea
of kingship was entertained by

Cromwell directly after Worcester.
* Made Bishop of Chester in 1667.
He married Cromwell's sister. See
ff. 187, 191, 253 ; and Overton, The
Enghsh Church in the seventeenth
century, 35.

before the Restoration. 115

as soon as the design of his kingship was settled. Upon CHAP. IV.
this, he spoke to Sharp, that it was plain by their breach
that presbytery could not be managed so as to maintain
order among them, and that an episcopacy must be brought
in to settle them : but Sharp could not bear the discourse,
and rejected it with horror. I have dwelt the longer on
this matter, and opened it the more fully than was necessary
if I had not thought that this may have a good effect on
the reader, and shew him how impossible it is in a parity 65
to maintain peace and order, if the magistrate does not
interpose : and then that will be cried out upon by the
zealots of both sides as abominable Erastianism.

CHAPTER V.

CROMWELL.

FROM these matters I go next to set down some par- MS. 34.
ticulars that I knew concerning Cromwell, that I have not
yet seen in books, Some of these I had from the earls of
Carlisle : and Orrery2 : the one had been the captain of his
guards, and the other had been the president of his council
in Scotland. But he from whom I learned the most was
Stoupe, a Orison by birth, then minister of the French
church in the Savoy 3, and afterwards a brigadier general

1 Charles Howard, created Earl 259, and infra 124, 127 ; ff. 176,
of Carlisle, April 20. 1661, b. 1629, 226.

d. 1685. 3 Jean Baptiste Stoupe was never

2 Roger Boyle, Lord Broghill, minister of the French church in the
younger son of the first Earl of Cork, Savoy, but of St. Martin's in the city,
created Earl of Orrery after the Besides, it is impossible that he should
Restoration. He died in 1679. His be minister in the Savoy, because the
life, written by his chaplain Thomas French church there was not open
Morrice, is prefixed to ' a collection till July 1661. [Under Cromwell
of State Papers of . . . Roger Boyle the French congregation in London
. . . first Earl of Orrery.' Many of had the use of the chapel of Somer-
his letters to Ormond are in * the set House. This they gave up at
Ormond Papers, H. M. C. Rep. vi : the Restoration to the queen-
those to Essex and many others in mother, petitioning for leave to use
the Essex Papers (Camd. Soc.), vol. i. the Savoy instead. Cal. Si. P. Dom.
See Gardiner's Great Civil War, iii. 1660- 1, 277. There were French

I 2

n6

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. V. in the French armies : a man of intrigue, but of no virtue :
he adhered to the protestant religion as to outward appear-
ance, but he was more a Socinian or deist than either
protestant or Christian. He was much trusted by Crom-
well in foreign affairs ; in which Cromwell was oft a to seek,
and having no foreign language, but the little Latin that
stuck to him from his education, which he spoke very
viciously and scantily, had not the necessary means of
informing himself.

When Cromwell first assumed the government, he had
the three great parties of the nation all against him, the
episcopal, the presbyterian, and the republican party1. The
last was the most set on his ruin, looking on him as the
person that had perfidiously broke the house of commons,
and was setting up for himself2. He had none to rely on
but the army: yet that enthusiastic temper that he had
taken so much pains to raise among them made them very
intractable 3 : many of the chief officers were broken and
imprisoned by him : and he flattered the rest the best he
could. He went on in his old way of long and dark dis-
courses, sermons, and prayers. As to the cavalier party,

• much struck out.

Protestant Churches also at Canter-
bury and the Isle of Ely, id. 1661-2,
479.] See Collier's Supplement,
voce Durell. Bowyers MS. note.
1 The French, Italian, and Dutch min-
isters came to make their addresses
to his majesty, one monsieur
Stoupe pronouncing the harangue
with great eloquence.' Evelyn,
June 16, 1660. Burnet travelled with
Stoupe to Italy in 1685. Cf. infra
130, I35> JS8? and ff. 335) 661. See
Mr. Firth's detailed note upon him
and his career in Ludlow's Memoirs,
ii. 389. There are also frequent
notices in Thurlowe, who styles
him simply ' minister of the French
Church in London,' ii. 246, 499,
501, 566. He is still so styled on

Aug. 23, 1662, when, by special
notice from the king to the French
Church in London, he was banished
the country as ' a notorious meddler
in matters not of his calling and an
intelligencer for the late government.'
Cal. St. P. Dom. 1661-2, 70.

1 ' The Presbyterians in and about
London are forward enough in
words, but cannot rise. The Royall
party will not engage before the
Presbyterian for fear of a desertion
as formerly/ Thomas Coke to Charles
H, Aug. &> 1650; Charles II and
Scotland in 1650, 133.

2 Firth's Ludlow's Memoirs, i. 347,
&c., and Life of Major General Har-
rison, 40-45.

3 H. M. C. Report, vi. 443.

before the Restoration. 117

he was afraid both of assassination and other plottings from CHAP. v.
them 1. As to the former of these, he took a method that
proved very effectual : he said often and openly, that in a
war it was necessary to return upon any side all the violent
things that any of the side did the other : this was done
for preventing greater mischiefs, and for bringing men to
fair war : therefore, he said, assassinations were such detest-
able things, that he would never begin them : but if any of
the king's party should endeavour to assassinate him, and
fail in it, he would make an assassinating war of it, and
destroy the whole family : and he pretended he had instru-
ments ready to execute it whensoever he should give orders
for it. The terror of this was a more effectual security to
him than his guards.

The other, as to their plottings, was the more dangerous.
But he understood that one sir Richard Willis was chan-
cellor Hyde's chief confident, to whom he wrote often, and
to whom all the party submitted, looking on him as an
able and wise man. in whom they confided absolutely2.
So he found a way to talk with him : he said, he did not
intend to hurt any of the party : his design was rather to 66

1 With good reason; as in the ii. 220, 256, 284, 287; Lingard, xi.
case of the conspiracy for which 337, 396, ed. 1829 ; Pepys, May 13,
Gerard and Vowell were executed 15, August i, 1660, August 13, 1663,
in July, 1654. Cal. Clar. St. P. Nov. 25, 1664 ; Clarke, Life of James
1654, 237 > Cobbetfs State Trials, v. //, i. 370. Sir R. Willis commanded
col. 522. Mr. Warner, in his edition a regiment at Warrington at the be-
of the Nicholas Papers (Camd. Soc.), ginning of the war and was governor
ii. Preface, x, and 68, brings forward of Newark; Clarendon, Rebellion, ix.
some interesting evidence, pro and 129; compounded with the Parlia-
con, regarding the complicity of ment, Nov. 1645 ; was in active
Charles, Hyde, Ormond and others of correspondence with Clarendon and
the king's counsellors. H. M. C. Nicholas aslateas 1659; was thehead
Report, vi. 443. There is no question of the ' Knot,' or council of royalists,
but that Ormond was privy to the plot in that year; and was condemned
of 1657. Cal. Clar. St. P. iii. 236, 338. for treason, May 15, 1660, but was

2 For this story, which, as Burnet pardoned, and in 1661 was petition-
gives it, is inaccurate in details, see ing for leave to show himself at
Clarendon, Rebellion, xvi. 28-34; court. See his detailed statement
English Historical Review, 1889, 527, of the transactions between himself,
528 ; Cal. Clar. St. P. iii. 614-618, 667 ; Thurloe, and Morland here referred
Carte's Collection of Original Letters, to in Cal. St. P. Dom. 1661-2, 232.

n8

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. V. save them from ruin : they were apt, after their cups, to
run into foolish and ill concerted plots, which signified
nothing but to ruin those who engaged in them : he knew
they consulted him in every thing : all he desired of him was
to know all their plots, that he might so deconcert them,
that none might ever suffer for them : if he clapt any of
them up in prison, it should only be for a little time, and
they should be interrogated only about some trifling dis-
course, but never about the business they had been engaged
in. He offered Willis whatever he would accept of, and to
give it when or as he pleased. He durst not ask or take
much, for if it had appeared that he had much money that
would have given jealousy, so he did not take above two
hundred pound a year. None was trusted with this but
his secretary Thurloe, who was a very dexterous man at
getting intelligence.

Thus Cromwell had all the king's party in a net, and he
let them dance in it at pleasure, and upon occasions clapt
them up for a short while : but nothing was ever- discovered
that hurt any of them. In conclusion, after Cromwell's
death, Willis continued to give notice of every thing to
Thurloe. At last, when the plot was laid among the
cavaliers for a general insurrection, the king was desired to
come over to that a which was to be raised in Sussex*:
he was to have landed near Chichesterb, all by Willis's
management : and a snare was laid for him, in which he
would probably have been caught if Morland, Thurloe' s
under secretary, who was a prying man, had not discovered
the correspondence between his master and Willis, and
warned the king of his danger l. Yet it was not easy to

a substituted for for Suffolk and Norfolk. b substituted for Yarmouth.

1 Samuel Morland (born 1625),
son of Thomas Morland, a clergyman ;
became Fellow of Magdalene College,
Cambridge, 1649, and was tutor to
Pepys, who entered in 1650. He
accompanied Whitelocke in his
embassy to Sweden in 1653, became

assistant to Thurloe in 1654, and went
as Cromwell's agent to the Duke of
Savoy in 1655, remaining for a time
as resident at Geneva. In 1658 he
published his History of the Evangelical
Churches of the valleys of Piedmont.
While secretary to Ihurloe he sent

before the Restoration. 119

persuade those who had trusted Willis so much, and CHAP. v.
thought a him faithful in all respects, to believe that he
could be guilty of so black a treachery: so Morland's
advertisement was looked on as an artifice to create
jealousy. But he, to give a full conviction, had observed
where the secretary laid some letters of advice, on which he
saw he relied most, and getting the key of that cabinet in
his hand to seal a letter with a seal that hung to it, he took
the impression of it in wax, and got a key to be made from
it, by which he opened the cabinet, and sent over some of
the most important of those letters. The hand was known,
and this artful but black treachery was discovered : so the
design of the rising was laid aside for that time. Sir George 1659..
Booth having engaged at the same time to raise a body in
Cheshire, two several messengers | were sent to him, to let MS. 35
him know the design could not be executed at the time
appointed : both these persons were suspected by some
garrisons through which they must pass, as giving no good 67
account of themselves in a time of jealousy, and were so
long stopt that they could not give him notice in time : so

a substituted for believed.

continual intelligence to Charles, and remarkable skill as musician, me-

' by unsealing letters written by chanic, engineer, and inventor. He

(Willis) saved Charles II who was was largely employed in this capacity

to have been murdered at Westen- by Charles II, and in 1682 his ser-

hanger in Kent.' H. M. C. Rep. vii. vices were secured by Louis XIV at

245. At the Restoration, having Versailles; id. vii 330 (a). By the

already been knighted by Charles former he was seldom paid, and

(Pepys, May 13, 1660), he was re- was always in embarrassed circum-

warded with a baronetcy, July 18, stances. In his later years he be-

1660, and a pension of £500 (id. came quite blind (Evelyn, Oct. 25,

August 14, 1660; August 13, 1663), 1695), and died in depression and

' for discovering a great many intel- penitence on Dec. 30, 1695. His

ligences; Sir R. Willis is in the MS. autobiography, containing much

van of them.' H. M. C. Rep. v. that is of interest, is at Lambeth Pa-

153. In 1668 he was appointed lace, No. 931. See the Brief account

Secretary to the Irish Commission, of the Life, Writings, and Inventions

and there is reason to believe that of Sir S. Mo r land by Halliwell, 1838;

he was in the pay of Louis XIV as and Wheatley's note to Pepys, i.

a spy upon state secrets in Eng- 137- uPon Burnet's story see

land. But his fame rests upon his Thurloe, iii. 102.

120

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. V. he very gallantly performed his part : but not being
seconded, he was soon crushed by Lambert. Thus Willis
lost the merit of great and long services. This was one of
Cromweirs masterpieces.

As for the presbyterians, they were so apprehensive of
the fury of the commonwealth party, that they thought it
a deliverance to be rescued out of their hands. Many of
the republicans began to profess deism, and almost all of
them were for destroying all clergymen and for breaking
every thing that looked like the union of a national church.
They were for pulling down the churches, for discharging*
the tithes, and for leaving religion free, as they called it,
without either encouragement or restraint. Cromwell
assured the presbyterians he would maintain a public
ministry with all due encouragement 1 ; and he joined
them in a commission with some independents to be the
triers of all those who were to be admitted to benefices.
These disposed also of all the churches that were in the
gift of the crown, of the bishops, and of the cathedral
churches : so this softened them.

He studied to divide the commonwealth party among
themselves, and to set the fifth-monarchy2 men and the
enthusiasts against those who pretended to little or no
religion, and acted only upon the principles of civil liberty,
such as Algernon Sidney, Henry Nevill, Marten, Wildman,
and Harrington. The fifth-monarchy men seemed to be
really in expectation every day when Christ should appear :
John Goodwin headed these, who first brought in Armin-

a substituted for selling out.

1 The ' Instrument of Govern-
ment' established a Church which
admitted every variety of Puritan
doctrine; and on Nov. 2, 1653, we
read, ' Peters preacheth daily in de-
fence of tithes.' Portland MSS vol.
iii. 204 ; H. M. C. Rep. xiv. App. ii.
The Barebone Parliament regarded
such an Institution as ' Babylonish '
and 'Antichrist.'

2 The previous 'monarchies' were
the Assyrian, Persian, Grecian, and
Roman. The fifth was that spoken
of by the Prophet Daniel, when
' The Saints shall take the kingdom
and possess it, 'the time when Christ
should come and reign for a thousand
years. See Butler's description of
a ' Fifth Monarchy man ' in Genuine
Remains (1756^, ii. 101.

before the Restoration. 121

ianism among the sectaries, for he was for liberty of all CHAP. v.
sorts. Cromwell hated that doctrine : for his beloved
notion was, that once a child of God always a child of
God : now he had led a very strict life for above eight
years together before the wars * : so he comforted himself
much with his reflections on that time, and on the cer-
tainty of perseverance. But none of the preachers were
so thoroughpaced for him as to temporal matters as
Goodwin was ; for he not only justified the putting the king
to death, but magnified it as the gloriousest action men
were capable of2. He filled all people with such expecta-
tion of a glorious thousand years, speedily to begin, that it
looked like a madness possessing them.

It was no easy thing for Cromwell to satisfy these when 68
he took the power into his own hands, since that looked
like a step to kingship, which Goodwin had long represented
as the great Antichrist that hindered Christ's being set on
his throne 3. To these he said, and as some have told me, with
many tears, that he would rather have taken a shepherd's
staff than the protectorship, since nothing was more con- 1658.
trary to his genius than a shew of greatness 4 : but he saw
it was necessary at that time to keep the nation from falling
into extreme disorder, and from becoming a prey to the
common enemy : and therefore he only stept in between
the living and the dead, as he phrased it, in that interval
till God should direct them on what bottom they ought to

1 Archbishop Tillotson, who had to Hyde that Cromwell 'derided
married his niece, used to say, 'that government by a commonwealth, and
at last Cromwell's enthusiasm had cried up monarchy' before Parlia-
got the better of his hypocrisy, and ment. Cal. Clar. St. P. iii. 189.
that he believed himself to be the in- * See his speech to Parliament on
strument of God, in the great actions Feb. 4, 1658 (Speech xviii. in Carlyle):
of his power, for the reformation of ' I can say in the presence of God,
the world.' O. in comparison with whom we are

2 His book was entitled The but like poor creeping ants upon
Obstructors of Justice, or A defence of the earth,— I would be glad to have
the honourable sentence passed upon lived under my woodside, to have
the late King by the High Court of kept a flock of sheep, rather than
Justice, 1649, 4to. undertaken such a government

3 In October 1656, Titus reported as this.'

122

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. v. settle : and he assured them that then he would surrender the
heavy load lying upon him with a joy equal to the sorrow
with which he was afflicted while under that shew of
dignity. To men of this stamp he would enter into the
terms of the old equality, shutting the door, and making
them sit down covered by him ; to let them see how little
he valued those distances that, for form's sake, he was
bound to keep up with others. These discourses commonly
ended in a long prayer. Thus he with much ado managed
the republican enthusiasts l. The other republicans he
called the heathen, and he professed he could not so easily
work upon them. He had some chaplains of all sorts : and
he began in his latter years to be gentler towards those of
the church of England. They had their meetings in several
places about London without any disturbance from him. In
conclusion, even the papists courted him : and he, with great
dissimulation, carried things with all sorts of people much
further than was thought possible, considering the difficulties
he met with in all his parliaments 2 : but it was generally
believed that his life and all his arts were exhausted at
once, and that if he had lived much longer, he could not
have held things together.

The debates came on very high for setting up a king.

1655 All the lawyers, chiefly Glyn, Maynard, Fountain, and

St. John, were vehemently for this 3. They said, no new

government could be settled legally but by a king, who

1 He had to use other means.
' We begin to be troubled with some
Quakers and Anabaptists, and some
that are for fifth monarchy, that my
Lord Protector might not reign, but
Christ personal, and such-like came-
rows and ayrye stuff [sic], whereof
some have been called to account for
their ill discourse of langish [sic], and
been desired [sic] upon their promise
or parole or surety for their good be-
haviour, and would embrace none of
these, as Col. Rich, Col. Harrison,
Mr. Karye, Mr.Carnegie . . . being the

head of these factors, and they are
secured and sent westward to several
prisons ; ' 1654, Feb. J3> H. M. C.
Rep. vi. 438.

2 ' People of all sorts rail at Crom-
well, and he governs and contemns
them.' Clar. St. P. May 29, 1654.

3 'We have great hope that His
Highness will accept of kingship,
which all men desire generally, and
by that means we hope to come to
a settlement. Our lawyers do press
hard for it.' H. M. C. Rep. vi. 438 ;
1655, May 4.

before the Restoration. 123

should pass bills for such a form as should be agreed on. CHAP. V.
Till then, all they did was like building upon sand : still —
men were in danger of a revolution : and in that case, all
that had been done would be void of itself, as contrary to
a law as yet in being, and not repealed. Till that was
done, every man that had been concerned in the war, and
in the blood that was shed, chiefly the king's, was still
obnoxious : and no warrants could be pleaded but what
were founded on, or approved of by, a law passed by king,
lords, and commons. They might agree to trust this | king MS. 36.
as much as they pleased, anda make his power determine
as soon as they pleased, so that he should be a felo de se,
and consent to an act, if need were, of extinguishing both
name and thing for ever. And as no man's person was
safe till this was done, so they said all the grants and sales 69
that had been made were null and void : all men that had
gathered or disposed of the public money were for ever
accountable. In short, the point was made out beyond the
possibility of answering it, except upon enthusiastic prin-
ciples. But by that sort of men all this was called a mis-
trusting of God, and a trusting to the arm of flesh. They
had gone out, as they said, in the simplicity of their hearts
to fight the Lord's battles, to whom they made the appeals :
he had heard them, and appeared for them, and now they
would trust him no longer. They had pulled down
monarchy with the monarch, and would they now build that
up which they had destroyed : they had solemnly vowed
to God to be true to the commonwealth, without a king or
kingship : and under that vow, as under a banner, they
had fought and prevailed : but now they must be secure,
and in order to that go back to Egypt. They thought it
was rather a happiness that they were still under a legal
danger : this might be a mean to make them more cautious
and diligent. If kings were the invaders of God's right,
and the usurpers upon men's liberties, why must they have
recourse to such a wicked engine? Upon these grounds

» to struck out.

I24

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. V. they stood out 1 : and they looked on all that was offered
about the limiting this king in his power, as the gilding the
pill : the assertors of those laws that made it necessary to
have a king, would no sooner have one than they would
bring forth out of the same storehouse all that related to
the power and prerogative of this king: therefore they
would not hearken to any thing that was offered on that
head, but rejected it with scorn. a Many of them began
openly to say, if we must have a king, in consequence of so
much law as was alleged, why should we not rather have
that king to whom the law certainly pointed than any
other 2 ? The earl of Orrery told me, that, coming one day
to Cromwell during those heats, and telling him he had
been in the city all that day, Cromwell asked him what
news he had heard there : the other answered, that he was
told he was in treaty with the king, who was bto be
restored, andb was to marry his daughter. Cromwell
expressing no indignation at this, lord Orrery said, in the
state to which things were brought, he saw not a better
expedient : they might bring him in on what terms they
pleased, and Cromwell might retain the same authority he
then had, with less trouble. He answered, the king can
never forgive his father's blood. Orrery said, he was one
of many that were concerned in that, but he would be alone
in the merit of restoring him. Cromwell replied, he is so
damnably debauched, he would undo us all ; and so turned

a And struck out. b interlined.

1 Less lofty motives concurred
with these, if we may credit an
amusing story in the Clar. St. P.
Feb. n, 1657, to the effect that
Mrs. Claypole, Cromwell's daughter,
spoke in so disparaging a way about
the wives of the major-generals that
those ladies, when they heard of it,
determined that she should never be
a princess. See Firth's Memoirs of
Hutchinson, ii. 202.

2 See the address of the Levellers
to the king, July 1656, when they

speak of their return ' to their first
husband.' Cal. Clar. St. P. iii. 145 ;
Clarendon, Rebellion, vi. 67. In
October 1657 a rising was prepared
in London under Cols. Deane and
Day, Cal. Clar. St. P. iii. 372. But
in Dec. 1657 Wildman insisted that
Charles should give under his hand
and seal an engagement to govern ac-
cording to the ancient laws (M».). As
early as 1649 there had been hopes
of securing the Levellers for the king.
Charles II and Scotland in 1650, 38.

before the Restoration. 125

to another discourse without any emotion, which made CHAP. V.
Orrery conclude he had often thought of that expedient1. ?~~

On the day in which he refused the offer of kingship that May 8,
was made to him by the parliament, he had kept himself l657'
on such a reserve that no man knew what answer he would
give. It was thought more likely he would accept of it 2 :
but that which determined him to the contrary was, that,
when he went down in the morning to walk in S. James's
park, Fleetwood and Desborough were waiting for him :
the one had married his daughter, and the other his sister.
With these he entered into much discourse on the subject,
and argued for it : he said, it was a tempting of God to
expose so many worthy men to death and poverty, when
there was a certain way to secure them. The others
insisted still on the oaths they had made. He said, these
oaths were against the power and tyranny of kings, but not
against the four letters that made the word king. In con-
clusion, they, believing from his discourse that he intended
to accept of it, told him they saw great confusions would
follow on it : and as they could not serve him to set up the
idol they had put down, and had sworn to keep down, so
they would not engage in any thing against him, but would
retire and look on. So they offered him their commissions,
since they were resolved not to serve a king. He desired
they would stay till they heard his answer. But it was
believed, that he, seeing two persons so near him ready to
abandon him, concluded that many others would follow
their example, and therefore thought it was too bold

1 The learned Dr. T. Smith's Dunstable,p.8i2. R. According to

detailed account of an interview James II (Clarke's Life, i. 439) Orrery

between Cromwell and the Marquis wasoneof theforemost in endeavour-

of Hertford is very similar to this. ing to persuade Cromwell to take

When solicited by the former to give the title. Morrice, Life of Orrery, 40

him his advice, the marquis urged (see supra, 115 note); Noble, House

the restoration of the king ; and the of Cromwell, i. 150 ; Pepys, Memoirs,

measure was declined by Cromwell, i. 314, 4to.

apparently through fear, under his a Welwood, 100, asserts that a

circumstances, of trusting any one. crown was actually made and

The relation is printed by Hearne brought to Whitehall in readiness,
in his Appendix to the Chronicon de

126

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP.V. a venture1. So he refused it, but accepted of the con-
tinuance of his protectorship. Yet, if he had lived out the
next winter, as the debates were to have been brought on
again, so it was generally thought he would have accepted
of the offer. And it is yet a question what the effect of
that would have been. Some have thought it would have
brought on a general settlement, since now the law and the
ancient government were again to take place : others have
fancied just the contrary, that it would have enraged the
• army, so that they would either have deserted the service,
or have revolted from him, and perhaps have killed him in
MS. 37. the first fray of the tumult. | I will not determine which
of these would have most probably happened. In these
debates some of the cavalier party, or rather their children,
came to bear some share. They were then all zealous com-
monwealth's men, according to the directions sent them
from those about the king. Their business was to oppose
Cromwell in all his demands, and so to weaken him at
home, and expose him abroad. When some of the other
71 party took notice of this great change, from being the
abettors of prerogative to become the patrons of liberty,
they pretended their education in the court and their obliga-
tion to it had engaged them that way ; but now since that
was out of doors, they had the common principles of human
nature and the love of liberty in them as well as others.
By this means, as all the old republicans assisted and pro-
tected them, so they secured themselves at the same time
that they strengthened the faction against Cromwell. But
these very men at the restoration shook off this disguise,
and reverted to their old principles for a high prerogative
and absolute power. They said they were for liberty, when
it was a mean to distress one who they thought had no
right to govern, but when the government returned to its
old channel, it appeared they were still as firm to all prero-
, gative notions, and as great enemies to liberty, as ever 2.

1 Ludlow, ii. 23, appears to be, the
source of this story.

2 It has been said, that Pride told
him, if he took the crown, he would

before the Restoration.

127

I go next to give an account of Cromwell's transactions CHAP. V.
with relation to foreign affairs. He laid it down for
a maxim, to spare no cost or charge in order to procure
him intelligence l. When he understood what dealers the
Jews were every where in that trade that depends on news,
that is, the advancing money upon high or low interest with
a proportion to the risk they run, or gain to be made as the
times might turn, and in the buying and selling of the
actions of money so advanced, he, more upon that account
than in compliance with the principle of toleration, brought
a company of them over into England, and gave them
leave to build a synagogue. All the while that he was
negotiating this, they were sure and good spies for him,
especially with relation to Spain and Portugal 2. The earl

(if nobody else would) shoot him
through the head, the first oppor-
tunity he had for it. O. See some
interesting notices upon this in the
H. M. C. Report, v. 163 ; and for an
able discussion of the wholequestion,
Ranke, iii. 176, &c. From the CaL
Clar. St. P., iii. 290, it appears that
while the soldiers opposed Crom-
• well's taking the crown, many re-
publicans favoured it from hope
of the opposition which they knew
would be aroused ; and that his
refusal frustrated the schemes of
Sexby and others. Compare Claren-
don, Rebellion, xv. 41, on the proba-
bility of assassination, though not
of revolt.

1 According to Pepys, Feb. 14,
1668, Morrice asserted that Cromwell
spent ^70,000 a year for secret intelli-
gence ; and Birch said that thereby
he l carried the secrets of all the
princes in Europe at his girdle/

2 There is abundant evidence that
Jews to a considerable number had
been resident in London for many
years, although there had been no
repeal of Edward I's edict of 1290:

in 1655 at any rate they had a
private S3rnagogue in Cree Church
Lane, Leadenhall St., and from 1647,
when Hugh Peters (in his programme
of government reform) petitioned in
their favour, their re-admission had
found powerful advocates. On Dec.
23, 1648, according to Pragmaticus,
Dec. 19-26, a toleration was voted
in the Council of Officers of all re-
ligions whatsoever, including Turks,
Papists, and Jews (Clarke Papers,
ii. 172 note) ; but no parliamentary
revocation of the edict took place,
though debates were held on the
subject in 1653. In Jan. 1649
Joanna Cartwright and her son
Ebenezer petitioned Fairfax and
the Council of Officers. At length, in
Nov. 1655, the celebrated Manasseh
Ben Israel personally presented a
petition to the Protector, at the in-
stance of Henry Marten, following
on a petition from Robert Rich and.
Samuel Hervey. The Council, while
admitting the legality of the return of
the Jews, appended the most onerous
conditions ; and in December the
question was referred to a conference

128

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. V. of Orrery told me, he was once walking with him in one
of the galleries of Whitehall, and a man almost in rags
came in view : so he presently dismissed Orrery, and
carried that man into his closet, who brought him an
account of a great sum of money that the Spaniards were

at which a number of divines,
lawyers, and merchants met a
committee of Council. This body
failed to reach a decision, and was
dismissed by Cromwell, who was
wearied by the fruitless biblical argu-
ments of the divines, with a request
for nothing further but their prayers.
He had clearly made up his mind to
admit the Jews on his own authority ;
and this he now did ; allowing them
to meet for devotion in their private
houses, and to acquire a piece of
land in Stepney for a cemetery :
they even celebrated the Feast of
Tabernacles in booths on the south
side of the Thames. They did not
apparently gain formal leave to
establish asynagogue, though this was
probably connived at ; it is certain
that a well-attended synagogue was
in existence ' in a private corner of
the city,' in 1662 and 1663, in spite
of the petition to Charles II for their
ejection from the London Corpora-
tion in 1660 (see Remonstrance
concerning Jews, Cal. St. P. Dom.
1660- 1, 3661, a fact which amply
disproves Tovey's assertion that in
1663 there were not more than
twelve Jews in England. Indeed a
Privy Council Order in Charles's reign
confirms to the Jews the privileges en-
joyed under Cromwell. A pamphlet
warfare preceded, accompanied, and
followed this admission ' by way of
connivance,' of which Prynne's
' Short Demurrer,' Manasseh's ' Vin-
diciae Judaeorum,' Thomas Collier's
' Brief Answer,' and John Dury's
'Case of Conscience,' were the chief

productions. In March 165^ Crom-
well granted Manasseh a pension of
£100 a year, which on Nov. 17, 1657,
only three days before his death,
was commuted for a lump sum of
£200. This no doubt is the ' season-
able benefaction ' to the Jews'
' principal agent ' referred to in the
editor's note on Burton's Diary, ii.
471. It is curious that on the strength
of the note mentioned, which follows,
but has not the slightest connexion
with, the extract from the Diary for
February 4, 1658, the Jews in Eng-
land, in the year 1894, appointed
February 4 as the anniversary of
their re-admission : a more proper
date would have been Dec. 12, when
Cromwell dismissed his conference.
Referring to Cromwell's ' Intelli-
gencers,' Dr. Lucien Wolf states that
as early as 1630 there were in London
a body of Spanish Jews, who at the
declaration of war with Spain in 1656
obtained protection. The chief of
them were Carvajal, Dormido, and
Casseres. who were useful as ' Intel-
ligencers.' The list of authorities for
the statements in this note is too
extensive for quotation ; but Wolfs
Anglo- Jewish History, 1290-1656,
and Jacobs & Wolf, Bibliotheca Ju-
daica (published by the Committee of
the Anglo- Jewish Historical Exhibi-
tion, 1887) ; the Jewish Chronicle at
various dates from 1887 to 1894 ; and
Stern's Manasseh Ben Israel and
Cromwell (Berne, 1882), should be
specially mentioned among modern
works.

before the Restoration. 129

sending over to pay their army in Flanders, but in a Dutch CHAP. V.
man of war: and he told him the places of the ship in
which the money was lodged. Cromwell sent an express
immediately to Smith, afterwards sir Jeremy Smith, who
lay in the Downs, telling him that within a day or two
such a Dutch ship would pass the channel, whom he must
visit for the Spanish money, which was counterband goods,
he being then in war with Spain. So when the ship passed
by Dover, Smith sent, and demanded leave to search him.
The Dutch captain answered, none but his masters might
search him. Smith sent him word, he had set up an hour
glass, and if before that was run out he did not submit to
the search, he would force it. The captain saw it was in vain
to struggle, and so all the money was found. Next time that
Cromwell saw Orrery, he told him he had his intelligence
from that contemptible man he saw him go to some days be- 72
fore. And thus he had on all occasions very good intelligence :
he knew every thing that passed in the king's little court :
and yet none of his spies were discovered but one only1.

The greatest difficulty in him in his foreign affairs was,
what side to choose? France or Spain? The prince of
Conde was then in the Netherlands with a great many
protestants of quality about him. He set the Spaniards
on making great steps towards the gaining Cromwell into
their interests. Spain ordered their ambassador to com-
pliment him. He was esteemed one of their ablest men2:
his name was Don Alonso de Cardenas : he offered, that if
Cromwell would join with them, they would engage them-
selves to make no peace till he should recover Calais again

1 Welwood, 95, relates the fol- never knew to his dying day either
lowing story told him by Thurlow. person or office.' At the same place
' He (Thurlow) was once commanded Welwood gives three more remark-
to go at a certain hour to Gray's able anecdotes of Cromwell's skill in
Inn, and at such a place deliver a obtaining secret information. See
bill of £20,000, payable to the bearer also Ludlow, ii. 41 , &c. ; and Kennet,
at Genoa, to a man he should find iii. 208.

walking in such a habit and posture 2 My lord Clarendon represents

as he described him, without speak- him as a man of mean abilities,

ing one word, . . . which he did, and Cole.

VOL. I. K

I30

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. V. to England. This was very agreeable to Cromwell, who
thought it would recommend him much to the nation if he
could restore that town again to the English empire, after
it had been a hundred years in the hands of the French.
Mazarin hearing of this, sent one over to negotiate with
him, but at first without a character : and, to outbid the
Spaniard, he offered to assist Cromwell to take Dunkirk,
which was a place of much more importance. The prince
of Conde* sent over one likewise to offer Cromwell to turn
protestant, and, if he would give him a fleet with good
troops, he would make a descent on Guienne, where he did
not doubt but that he should be assisted by the protestants;
and that he should so distress France, as to obtain such
conditions for them and for England as Cromwell himself
should dictate. Upon this offer Cromwell sent Stoupe

MS. 38. round all France1, | to talk with their most eminent men,
to see into their strength, into their present disposition, the
oppressions they lay under, and their inclinations to trust
the prince of Conde. He went from Paris down the Loire,
then to Bourdeaux, from thence to Montauban, and across
the south of France to Lyons : he was instructed to talk to
them only as a traveller, and to assure them of Cromwell's
zeal and care of them, which he magnified every where.
The protestants were then very much at their ease : for
Mazarin,, who thought of nothing but how to enrich his
family,, took care to maintain the edicts better than they

1 The date of Stoupe's mission to
France is fixed by the Memoirs of
the Prince of Tarentum (1767),
169, to have been the spring or
summer of 1654. See also Barriere's
letter of Feb. 20, 165^, in the Duke
of Aumale's MSS. Stoupe, it ap-
pears, sold himself to France. Bor-
deaux wrote to the Comte de Brienne
on July i, 1655, (Aff. Etr. Angle-
terre, t. 65, f. ±^-}, 'Je dois voir
cette nuit le ministre Stoupe, qui
m'a fait offrir par le Suisse de me
decouvrir de grands secrets . . . et

de servir desormais la France,
moyennant recompense : il veut par
avance trois cents livres sterling.' On
July 9 Mazarin in the king's name
accepted the offer (ib. t. 66, p. 84) ;
Cheruel, Hist, de France sous le
ministere de Mazarin, i. 63, ii. 81,
note 3. Both letters are given in
Guizot's Cromwell, ii. App. 507.
Concerning the journeys of Stoupe
and other emissaries of Cromwell, and
the reported offer of Conde to turn
Protestant, see also the Journal of
Joachim Haue (ed. Firth), xii-xxviii.

before the Restoration. 131

had been in any time formerly. So he returned, and gave CHAP. V.
Cromwell an account of the ease they were then in, and
of their resolution to be quiet. They had a very bad
opinion of the prince of Conde as an impious and immoral
man, who sought nothing but his own greatness, to which
they believed that he was ready to sacrifice all his friends,
and every cause that he espoused. This settled Cromwell
as to that particular. He also found that the cardinal had
such spies on that prince, that he knew every message that 73
had passed between them : therefore he would have no
farther correspondence with him : he said upon that to
Stoupe, Stultus est, et garrulus, et venditur a snis cardinal*.
That which determined him afterwards in the choice was
this : he found the parties grew so strong against him at
home, that he saw if the king or his brother were assisted
by France with an army of Huguenots to make a descent in
England, which was threatened if he should join with Spain,
this might prove very dangerous to him, who had so many
enemies at home and so few friends1. This particular
consideration, with relation to himself, made great im-
pression on him ; for he knew the Spaniards could give
those princes no strength, nor had they any protestant

1 On the negotiations between current then and for long afterwards.

Cromwell and Mazarin, see Cheruel, ' This confederacy was dearly pur-

Hist. de France sous le ministere de chased on our part ; for by it the

Mazarin. The failure of the Royalist balance of the two crowns of Spain

rising in 1655 increased the desire and France was destroyed, and a

of the French Court for a treaty. foundation laid for the future great-

NtcholasPapers(CamdenSoc.],vol.n. ness of the French, to the unspeak-

Preface, p. xv. See the text of the able prejudice of all Europe in

engagements between Cromwell and general, and of this nation in par-

Mazarin in the H. M. C. Report, viii. ticular, whose interest it had been

29. On March 23, 1657, an offensive to that time accounted to maintain

alliance was signed, with a secret that equality as near as might be.'

article, binding France and England See Mr. Firth's note on this passage,

to abstain from making a separate The immediate results of the alliance

peace with Spain for a year from were the capture of Mardyke, Oct. 3,

that date. Upon the importance of 1657, the victory of the Dunes, June

Cromwell's decision to the later 13, and the capture of Dunkirk and

history of Europe, see Ranke, iii. Gravelines, June 25, August 29.

213. Ludlow, ii. 2, gives the opinion 1658.

K 2

I32

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. v. subjects to assist them in any such design. Upon this
occasion K. James told me, that among other prejudices
he had at the protestant religion this was one, that both
his brother and himself, being in many companies in Paris
incognito, where they met many protestants, he found they
were all alienated from them, and were great admirers of
Cromwell : so he believed they were all rebels in their
heart. I answered, that foreigners were no other way con-
cerned in the quarrels of their neighbours, than to see who
could or would assist them : the coldness they had seen
formerly in the court of England with relation to them,
and the zeal which was then expressed, must naturally
make them depend on one that seemed resolved to protect
them. As the negotiation went on between France and
England, Cromwell would have the king and his brothers
Nov. 1655. dismissed the kingdom1. Mazarin consented to this; for
he thought it more honourable that the French king should
send them away of his own accord, than that it should be
done pursuant to an article with Cromwell. Great excuses
were made for doing it : they had some money given them,
and were sent away loaded with promises of constant
supplies that were never meant to be performed : and they
retired to Cologne ; for the Spaniards were not yet out of
hope of gaining Cromwell. But when that vanished, they
invited them to Brussells, and they settled great appoint-
ments on them in their way, which was always to promise
much, how little soever they could perform. They also
settled a pay for such of the subjects of the three king-
. doms as would come and serve under our princes : but few
came, except from Ireland : of these some regiments were
formed. But though this gave them a great and lasting
interest in our court, especially in K. James, yet they did
not much to deserve it.

1 This was at the preliminary
commercial treaty signed at West-
minster on November 3, 1655. For a
list of the persons whose expulsion

was demanded, see Guizot, ii. 468.
The offensive and defensive alliance
was in May, 1657.

before the Restoration.

Before king Charles left Paris he changed his religion, CHAP. v.
but by whose persuasion is not yet known : only cardinal
de Retz was of the secret, and lord Aubigny had a great 74
hand in it. It was kept a great secret. Chancellor Hyde
had some suspicion of it, but would never suffer himself to
believe it quite1. Soon after the restoration, that cardinal

1 Upon the question of Charles's
conversion, see the exhaustive state-
ment in Ranke. iii. 395, and Carte's
Ormond, iii. 651, iv. 109, from which
it appears that Bristol clearly believed
in it in 1659. But see also Lister,
Life of Clarendon, i. 396. In Charles
II and Scotland in 1650, 105, no,
119, his 'inclinations' are spoken of
as perfectly well known. His igno-
rance of Latin alone, it is stated, kept
him from being a Roman Catholic,
as he probably was an English one.
In 1650, however, a paper of 'Pro-
positiones et motiva,' now at Si-
mancas, was presented to InnocenfX
on the part of Charles II, a fact
which obviously excludes the idea
of his conversion at that time ; the
ground of his claim on the Pope for
pecuniary help being the favour
enjoyed by the Catholics under his
father. This paper may be seen in
the Thomason Tracts, and is pub-
lished in ' The Brief Relation,' Brit.
Mus. E. 607, 15 ; Charles II and
Scotland in 1650, 128. The ne-
gotiations with the Pope were re-
sumed after Worcester; in Feb.,
165^, Charles expressed his desire
to protect and favour the Catholics
in the three kingdoms, and again
in April, Cal. St. P, Dom. 1660-
1661,582; but the Pope declined to
admit his agent until he should
be satisfied of Charles's personal
conversion. At the end of 1652
and beginning of 1653, in inter-
views with a Catholic priest, Charles
gravely professed his readiness to
be converted if the Pope would

give him effective help ; but the
Pope again refused to accept a con-
vert on those terms. Vatican Tran-
scripts (Record Office). In 1653,
Nicholas and others of his more pru-
dent counsellors interfered to pre-
vent him sending a mission to Rome.
Nicholas Papers, ii. 10. Negotiations
were carried on without success in
the following years. In May, 1656, it
was published in newspapers at the
Hague that Charles was a Catholic.
See also Plain English, 1690 ; State
Tracts published in the reign ofWilliam
III, ii. 83. ' Sir Allan Brotherick [of
Wandlesworth], who was with that
king beyond sea at the time of
his first professing the Popish re-
ligion, has been often heard to lament
the burning of his Journal where-
in the very day and circumstances
of it were entered, and I am
assured that one of His present
Majesty's chaplains can give an ac-
count of his deathbed declaration
[Brotherick died Nov. 25, 1680. Le
Neve, Knights Pedigrees, 102, of what
he knew in it], with this additional
circumstance, that it was done in
the absence of the old Lord Cul-
pepper, who, knowing of it at his
return, fell into a great passion
and told the king he must never
expect to see England again, if it
should be known there.' For further
information about Brotherick, see
Wood, Fasti, ii. 252 and Ath. Ox.
iii. 808. In Flagellum Parliamenta-
rians (1678) he is pilloried as ' bribe
broker for his master the Chan-
cellor.' For a curious notice see

r34

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. V came over in disguise, and had an audience of the king :
what passed is not known 1. The first ground I had to
believe it was this: the marquis de Roucy, who was the
man of the greatest family in France that continued pro-
testant to the last, was much pressed by that cardinal to
change his religion : he was his kinsman, and his particular
friend. Among other reasons one that he urged was, that
the religion must certainly be ruined, and that they could
expect no protection from England, for to his certain
knowledge both the princes were already changed. Roucy
told this in great confidence to his minister, who after his
death sent an advertisement of it to my self. Sir Allan
Brodrick, a great confident of the chancellor's, who from
being very atheistical became in the last years of his life
an eminent penitent, as he was a man of great parts, with
whom I had lived long in great confidence, on his death-
bed sent me likewise an account of this matter, which he
believed was done in Fountainebleau, before king Charles
was sent to Cologne. As for king James, it seems he was
not reconciled at that time : for he told me, that being in
MS. 39. a monastery in Flanders, | a nun desired him to pray every
day, that if he was not in the right way, God would bring
him into it : and he said, the impression these words made
on him never left him till he changed.

To return to Cromwell : while he was balancing in his
mind what was fit for him to do, Gage, who had been
a priest, came over from the West Indies, and gave him
such an account of the feebleness, as well as of the wealth,
of the Spaniards in those parts, as made him conclude that

Pepys, Dec. 19, 1666. Burnet, it
will be noticed, merely says that
Brotherick spoke of the conversion,
' which he believed was done.' The
author of Plain English proceeds
to accuse Charles implicitly of poison-
ingCulpepper ; and in several respects
his language makes his facts un-
worthy of credit. If Huddleston's
account of the scene at the king's

deathbed be genuine (Ralph, i. 834),
nothing is clearer than that, what-
ever might have been his wishes or
understanding with Rome, no formal
union with the Catholic Church had
taken place until then.

1 De Retz visited England twice in
1660. Memoirs of De Retz (Petitot,
1825), In trod. 63. Cf. infra 347.
Upon Aubigny see infra 243, note.

before the Restoration. 135

it would be both a great and an easy conquest to seize on CHAP. v.
their dominions1 ; by this he reckoned he would be supplied
with such a treasure, that his government would be
established before he should need to have any recourse to
a parliament for money. Spain would never admit of a
peace with England between the tropics : so he was in
a state of war with them as to those parts, even before he
declared war in Europe. He upon that equipped a fleet
with a force sufficient, as he hoped, to have seized His-
paniola and Cuba ; and Gage had assured him, that success
in that expedition would make all the rest fall into his
hands. Stoupe, being on another occasion called to his
closet, saw him one day very intent in looking on a map,
and in measuring distances. Stoupe saw it was a map of
the bay of Mexico, and observed who printed it. So,
there being no discourse upon that subject, Stoupe went 75
next day to the printer to buy the map. The printer
denied he had printed it. Stoupe affirmed he had seen it.
Then he said, it must be only in Cromwell's hand ; for he
only had some of the prints, and had given him a strict
charge to sell none till he had leave given him. So Stoupe
perceived there was a design that way. And when the
time of setting out the fleet came on, all were in a gaze
whither it was to go : some fancied it was to rob the church
of Loretto, which occasioned a fortification to be drawn
round it : others talked of Rome itself ; for Cromwell's
preachers had this often in their mouths, that if it were
not for the divisions at home, he would go and sack
Babylon : others talked of Cadiz, though he had not yet
broke with the Spaniards. The French could not penetrate
into the secret. Cromwell had not finished his alliance

1 The curious career of Gage in the text. On the connexion be-

should be read in detail in the tween him and Cromwell, see also

Dictionary of National Biography. Long's Hist, of Jamaica, 221. He

His work The English American; was appointed chaplain to Venables s

or New Survey of the West Indias, expedition, and died in 1656. See

PubliShedini648,arousedthe greatest Ludlow, i. 417, and The None-si

interest, on the grounds mentioned Charles, 116.

136

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. V. with them : so he was not bound to give them an account
of the expedition : all he said upon it was, that he sent out
this fleet to guard the seas, and to restore England to its
dominion on that element. Stoupe happened to say in
a company, he believed the design was on the West Indies.
The Spanish ambassador, hearing that, sent for him very
privately, to ask him upon what ground he said it : and he
offered to lay down £10,000 if he could make any discovery
of that. Stoupe owned to me he had a great mind to the
money, and fancied he betrayed nothing if he did discover
the grounds of these conjectures, since nothing had been
trusted to him : but he expected greater matters from
Cromwell, and so kept the secret, and said only, that, in
a diversity of conjectures, that seemed to him more probable
than any other. But the ambassador made no account of
that, nor did he think it worth the writing to Don John,
then at Brussells, about it l.

Stoupe writ it over as his own conjecture to one about
the prince of Conde, who at first hearing it was persuaded
that that must be the design, and went next day to suggest
it to Don John : but he relied so much on the ambassador
that this made no impression ; and indeed all the ministers
whom he employed knew that they were not to disturb
him with troublesome news : of which K. Charles told
a pleasant story. One whom Don John was sending to
some court in Germany, came to the king to ask his
commands : he desired him only to write him news : the
Spaniard asked him, whether he would have true or false
news ? and when the king seemed amazed at the question,
he added that if he writ him true news the king must be
secret, for he knew he must write news to Don John that
would be acceptable, true or false. When the ministers of
76 that court shewed that they would be served in such
a manner, it is no wonder to see how their affairs have
declined. This matter of the fleet continued a great secret ;

1 This is greatly exaggerated.
The probable destination of the fleet

for the West Indies was talked
about long before it sailed.

before the Restoration. 137

and some months after that, Stoupe being accidentally CHAP, v
with Cromwell, one came from the fleet through Ireland
with a letter. The bearer looked like one that brought no

o

welcome news ; and as soon as Cromwell had read the
letter, he dismissed Stoupe, who went immediately to the
earl of Leicester, then lord Lisle, and told him what he
had seen. He being then of Cromwell's council went to
Whitehall, and came back, and told Stoupe of the descent
made on Hispaniola, and of the misfortune that had
happened. It wras then late, and was the post night for
Flanders ; so Stoupe writ it as news to his correspondent,
some days before the Spanish ambassador knew any thing
of it. Don John was amazed at the news, and had never
any regard to the ambassador after that ; but had a great
opinion of Stoupe, and ordered the ambassador to make
him theirs at any rate. The ambassador sent for him, and
asked him, now that it appeared he had guessed right,
what were | his grounds : and when he told what they MS. 40.
were, the ambassador owned he had reason to conclude as
he did upon what he saw. And after that he made great
use of Stoupe : but he himself was never esteemed so much
as he had been. This deserved to be set down so parti-
cularly, since by it it appears that the greatest designs
may be discovered by an undue carelessness. The court
of France was amazed at the undertaking, and was glad
that it had miscarried ; for the cardinal said, if he had
suspected it, he would have made peace with Spain on any
terms, rather than to have given way to that which would
have been such an addition to England, as must have
brought all the wealth of the world into their hands. The
fleet took Jamaica : but that was small gain, though much 1655.
magnified to cover the failing of the main design \ The
war after that broke out, in which Dunkirk was indeed Ju^ T4,
taken, and put in Cromwell's hands; but the trade of

1 See Venables's Letters on the Portland MSS. ii. 92-98 ; H. M. C.
Capture of Jamaica. Carte's Collection Rep. xiii. App. ii.
of Original Letters, ii. 46 ; and the

i38

A Summary of Affairs

1656.

CHAP.V. England suffered more in that than in any former war: so
he lost the heart of the city by that means.

Cromwell had two signal occasions given him to shew
his zeal in protecting the protestants abroad. The duke
of Savoy raised a new persecution of the Vaudois : so
Cromwell sent to Mazarin, desiring him to put a stop to
that ; adding, that he knew well they had that duke in
their power, and could restrain him as they pleased : and
if they did it not, he must presently break with them.
Mazarin objected to this as unreasonable : he promised to
do good offices, but he could not be obliged to answer for
June-Aug. the effects they might have. This did not satisfy Crom-
well : so they obliged the duke of Savoy to put a stop to
that unjust fury : and Cromwell raised a great sum for the
Vaudois, and sent over Morland to settle all their concerns
and supply all their losses. There was also a tumult in
Nimes 1, in which some disorder had been committed by
the Huguenots : and they, apprehending severe proceedings
upon it, sent one over with great expedition to Cromwell,
who sent him back to Paris in an hour's time with a very
effectual letter to. his ambassador, requiring him either to
prevail that the matter might be passed over, or to come
away immediately. Mazarin complained of this way of
proceeding as too imperious, but the necessity of their
affairs made him yield. These things raised Cromwell's
character abroad, and made him be much depended on.

His ambassador at this time was Lockhart, a Scotchman,
who had married his niece, and was in high favour with
him, as he well deserved to be2. He was both a wise and

1 This affair of Nimes is not
generally mentioned by historians.
Probably Burnet took it from Claren-
don's Rebellion, xv. 153, 154. See
Thurlow, vi. 727 ; Skippon's Travels
in Churchill's Voyages, vi. 733.

2 Sir William Lockhart was
knighted by Charles I at Newark in
1646, served in the army of the
Engagement, was one of the com-

missioners for the administration of
justice in Scotland in 1652; and
was appointed ambassador to France
in 1655. Clarendon speaks of his
great influence with Mazarin. See
Kennet, iii. 208. He took command
of the English regiments at the battle
of the Dunes on the death of General
Reynolds, and was then made gover-
nor of Dunkirk. See Ludlow, ii. 96,

before the Restoration. 139

a gallant man, calm and virtuous, and one that carried the CHAP. V.
generosities of friendship very far. He was made governor
of Dunkirk and ambassador at the same time ; but he told
me, that when he was sent afterwards ambassador by
K. Charles, he found he had nothing of that regard that
was paid him in Cromwell's time. Stoupe told me of
a great design Cromwell had intended to begin his king-
ship with, if he had assumed it. He resolved to set up
a council for the protestant religion, in opposition to the
congregation de propaganda fide at Rome. He intended it
should consist of seven councillors, and four secretaries
for different provinces. These were the first, France,
Switzerland, and the Valleys : the Palatinate and the other
Calvinists were the second : Germany, the North, and
Turkey were the third : and the East and West Indies
were the fourth. These were to have £500 salary apiece,
and to keep a correspondence every where, to know the
state of religion all over the world, that so all good designs
might be by their means protected and assisted. Stoupe
was to have the second province, and they were to have
a fonds of £10,000 a year at their disposal for ordinary
emergents, but to be further supplied as occasions should
require it. Chelsey college was to be made up for them,
which was then an old decayed building, that had been at
first raised for a design not unlike this, to be a college for
writers of controversy. I thought it was not fit to let such
a project as this was be quite lost : it was certainly a noble

97, 171. In 1659 he acted as ambas- Dutch war, and in 1673 went as
sador at the Peace of the Pyrenees ; ambassador to Paris (ff. 305, 389,
id. 117. At the Restoration he was 390, 394). He died in 1676 (or
deprived of this post and led a private 1677?), See his whole career in
life, refusing the overtures of the Burton's The Scot Abroad, ii. 230
Commonwealth refugees in Holland et seq. ; Noble, Protectoral House of
in 1665 (f. 227), until 1671, when Cromwell (1787;, ii- 235 J and the
Lauderdale reintroduced him at Court Did. Nat. Biog. He married, as his
(f. 304), where, however, he was second wife, Cromwell's niece on
always regarded with suspicion. In the mother's side, Robina, daughter
that year he was employed in the of John Sewster ofWeston, Hunting-
diplomacy preparative to the second denshire.

140

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. V. one, but how far he would have pursued it must be left to
conjecture l.

Stoupe told me another remarkable passage in his em-
ployment under Cromwell. He had desired all that were
78 about the prince of Conde to let him know some news, in
return of that he writ to them. So he had a letter from
one of them, giving an account of an Irishman newly gone
over, who had said he would kill Cromwell, and that he
was to lodge in King street, Westminster. With this he
went down to Whitehall. Cromwell being then at council,
he sent him a note, letting him know that he had a business
of great consequence to lay before him. Cromwell was
then upon a matter that did so entirely possess him. that
he, fancying it was only some piece of foreign intelligence,
sent Thurloe to know what it might be. Stoupe was
troubled at this, but could not refuse to shew him his
letter. Thurloe made no great matter of it : he said, they
had many such advertisements sent them, which signified
nothing, but to make the world think the Protector was in
danger of his life : and the looking too much after these
things had an appearance of fear, which did ill become so
great a man. Stoupe told him. King street might be soon
searched. Thurloe answered, what if we find no such per-
son ? how shall we be laughed at. Yet he ordered him
to write again to Brussells, and promise any reward if
a more particular discovery could be made. Stoupe was
MS. 41. much cast down, | when he saw that a piece of intelligence
which he hoped might have made his fortune was so little
considered. He wrote to Brussells : but he had no more
from thence but a confirmation of what had been writ
formerly to him. And Thurloe did not think fit to make
any search or any further inquiry into it : nor did he so
much as acquaint Cromwell with it Stoupe being uneasy
at this, told lord Lisle of it : and it happened that a few

1 Upon Cromwell's far-reaching
projects for the support of Pro-
testantism see Guizot, Cromwell,

ii. 221. 223,233 ; and Stern, Cromwell
und die Evangelischen Kantone dcr
Schiveiz.

before the Restoration. 141

weeks after Syndercomb's design of assassinating Cromwell CHAP. v.
near Brentford, as he was going to Hampton court, v/as
discovered. When he was examined, it appeared that he ^
was the person set out in the letters from Brussells. So
Lisle said to Cromwell, this is the very man of whom
Stoupe had the notice given him1. Cromwell seemed
amazed at this, and sent for Stoupe, and in great wrath
reproached him for his ingratitude in concealing a matter
of such consequence to him. Stoupe upon this shewed
him the letters he had received ; and put him in mind of
the note he had sent in to him, which was immediately
after he had the first letter, and that he had sent out
Thurloe to him. At that Cromwell seemed yet more
amazed, and sent for Thurloe, to whose face Stoupe
affirmed the matter : nor did he deny any part of it ; but
only said that he had many such advertisements sent him,
in which till this time he had never found any truth.
Cromwell replied sternly, that he ought to have acquainted
him with it, and left him to judge of the importance of it.
Thurloe desired to speak in private with Cromwell : so 79
Stoupe was dismissed, and went away, not doubting but
Thurloe would be disgraced. But, as he understood from
Lisle afterward, Thurloe shewed Cromwell such instances
of his care and fidelity on all such occasions, and humbly
acknowledged his error in this matter, but imputed it
wholly to his care, both for his honour and quiet, that he
pacified him entirely : and indeed he was so much in all
Cromwell's secrets, that it was not safe to disgrace him
without destroying him ; and that, it seems, Cromwell
could not resolve on. Thurloe having mastered this point,
that he might further justify his not being so attentive as

1 Cal. Oar. St. P. iii. 236. Ac- what was called Overtoil's plot,
cording to Bevill Higgons, 92, Miles Higgons adds that he was a mortal
Syndercomb was not an Irishman, enemy to the king. For the con-
having been born in Hampshire ; nor nexion between the royalists and
was he ever in Flanders. He was dis- levellers, however, see Lingard, 3rd
missed from Monk's army in Scot- ed., xi. 316, 335, and supra 124,
land in Jan. 165* for complicity in note.

142

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. V. he ought to have been, did so search into Stoupe's whole
deportment, that he possessed Cromwell with such an ill
opinion of him, that after that he never treated him with
any confidence. So he found how dangerous it was even
to preserve a prince, (so he called him,) when a minister
was wounded in the doing of it ; and that the minister
would be too hard for the prince, even though his own
safety was concerned in it 1.

These are all the memorable things that I have learnt
concerning Cromwell ; of whom so few have spoken with
any temper, some commending and others condemning
him, and both out of measure, that I thought a just account
of him, which I had from sure hands, might be no unac-
ceptable thing. He never could shake off the roughness 2
of his education and temper : he spoke always long, and
very ungracefully. The enthusiast and the dissembler
mixed so equally in a great part of his deportment, that
it was not easy to tell which was the prevailing character.
He was indeed both ; as I understood from Wilkins and
Tillotson, the one having married his sister and the other
his niece. He was a true enthusiast, but with the principle

1 ' The tale is pretty and may serve
to amuse a reader unacquainted with
this period of our history, but cer-
tainly it could not be true. Synder-
combe was much better known to
Cromwell and Thurloe than he could
possibly be to Stoupe. Thurloe
had his eye upon the man con-
stantly, and was master of the
whole design against Cromwell from
the time it was first in agitation.
Besides there are abundance of
letters from Stoupe in this collec-
tion, which show him to have been
a very busy troublesome fellow,
and to have known little or nothing
but what he picked up from persons
newly come from abroad, whom he
attended as a kind of interpreter.'
Letter on the publication of Thurloe 's
State Papers, Lond. 1742, p. 9. R.

'2 Lord Clarendon (xv. 148) and
Sir Philip Warwick say quite other-
wise. O. After describing the rough
and slovenly figure presented by
Cromwell at the beginning of the
parliament of Nov. 1640, Warwick
says : ' And yet I lived to see this
very gentleman, . . . having had a
better taylor and more converse
among good company, appear of a
great and majestic deportment and
comely presence.' Memoirs, 248. His
interest in sport has been illustrated
by Mr. Firth in Macmillans Magazine,
Oct. 1894. For an authentic instance
of his occasional indulgence in horse-
play, see Ludlow, i. 185 ; see also
State Trials, v. 1200, for the story
of his drawing an inky pen across
Marten's face at the signing of the
death-warrant of Charles.

before the Restoration. 143

formerly mentioned, from which he might be easily led CHAP. V.
into all the practices both of falsehood and cruelty : which
was, that he thought moral laws were only binding on
ordinary occasions, but that upon extraordinary ones these
might be superseded. When his own designs did not
lead him out of the way, he was a lover of justice and
virtue, and even of learning, though much decried at
that time.

He studied to seek out able and honest men, and to
employ them : and so having heard that my father had
a very great reputation in Scotland for piety and integrity,
though he knew him to be a royalist l, he sent to him,
desiring him to accept of a judge's place, and to do justice
to his country, hoping only that he would not act against
his government ; but he would not press him to subscribe
or swear to it. My father refused it in a pleasant way, so
being a facetious man, and abounding in little stories. So
when he who brought the message was running out into
Cromwell's commendation, my father told a story of a
pilgrim in popery, who came to a church where one saint
Kilmaclotius was in great reverence: so the pilgrim was
bid pray to him : but he answered, he knew nothing
of him, for he was not in his breviary : but when he
was told how great a saint he was, he prayed this collect ;
O sancte Kilmacloti, tu nobis hactenus es incognitus; hoc
sohim a te rogo, ut si bona tua nobis non prosunt, saltern
mala ne noccant. My father applied it, that he desired no
other favour of him, but leave to live privately, without the
imposition of oaths and subscriptions : and ever after that
he lived in great quiet ; though Overton, one of Cromwell's
major-generals, who was a high republican, being for some
time at Aberdeen, where we then lived, my father and he

1 Burnet's father had signed the 57, note i. He was made a Lord of
Covenant. Lockhart Papers, i. 597. Session at the Restoration, with the
But he was utterly opposed to the title of Lord Crimond. See Cock-
intolerance of the Covenanters ; see burn's Remarks, p. 25.
his letter to Warriston, quoted supra

144

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP.V. were often together: in particular they were alone for
MS 42 about two | hours the night after the order came from

1654. Cromwell to take away his commissions, and to put him
in arrest l. Upon that, Howard, afterwards earl of Carlisle,
being sent down to inquire into all the plots that those
men had been in, heard of this long privacy: but when
with that he heard what my father's character was, he
made no further inquiry into it, but said Cromwell was
very uneasy when any good man was questioned for any
thing. This gentleness had in a great measure quieted
people's minds with relation to him, and his maintaining
the honour of the nation in all foreign countries gratified
the vanity which is very natural to Englishmen 2 ; of which
he was so careful, that though he was not a crowned head,
yet his ambassadors had all the respects paid them which
our king's ambassadors ever had. He said, the dignity of
the crown was upon the account of the nation, of which the
king was only the representative head ; so the nation being
still the same, he would have the same regard paid to his
ministers.

Another instance of this pleased him much. Blake with
the fleet happened to be at Malaga before he made war

*655- upon Spain : and some of his seamen went ashore, and
met the hostiea carried about and not only paid no respect
to it, but laughed at those who did : so one of the priests
put the people on to the resenting this indignity; they
fell upon them, and beat them severely. When they re-
turned to their ship, they complained of this usage : and
upon that Blake sent a trumpet to the viceroy, to demand
the priest who was the chief instrument in that ill usage.
The viceroy answered, he had no authority over the priests,

a Perhaps hostia, but the last letter is like an e.

1 This was in December 1654.
See Ludlow, i. 406, and English
Hist. Rev. 1888, 330.

2 Sec Marvell's Dialogue between
two Horses, 157 ; Pepys's 'He made

all the neighbour princes fear him/
July is. 1667 ; and Dryden's noble
line, ' He made us freemen of the
continent,' Heroic Stanzas on the
Death of Cromwell, 113.

before the Restoration. 145

and so could not dispose of him. Blake upon that sent CHAP.V.
him word, that he would not inquire who had the power 81~
to send the priest to him, but if he were not sent within
three hours he would burn their town : and they, being in
no condition to resist him, sent the priest to him, who
justified himself upon the petulant behaviour of the sea-
men. Blake answered, that if he had sent a complaint to
him of it, he would have punished them severely, since he
would not suffer his men to affront the established religion
of any place at which he touched : but he took it ill, that
he set on the Spaniards to do it, for he would have all the
world to know that an Englishman was only to be punished
by an Englishman: and so he treated the priest civilly,
and sent him back, being satisfied that he had him at his
mercy. Cromwell was much delighted with this, and read
the letters in council with great satisfaction ; and said he
hoped he should make the name of an Englishman as
great as ever that of a Roman had been. The States of
Holland were in such dread of him, that they took care
to give him no sort of umbrage : and when at any time
the king or his brothers came to see their sister, the prin-
cess royal, within a day or two after they used to send
a deputation to let them know that Cromwell had required
of the States that they should give them no harbour.
K. Charles, when he was seeking for colours for the war
with the Dutch in the year 1672, urged this for one. that
they suffered some of his rebels to live in their provinces.
Boreel, then their ambassador, answered, that was a maxim
of long standing among them, not to inquire upon what
account strangers came to live in their country, but to
receive them all, unless they had been concerned in con-
spiracies against the persons of princes. The king told
him upon that how they had used both himself and his
brother. Boreel, in great simplicity, answered : Ha ! sire,
cela estoit une antre chose: Cromwell^ cestoit im grand
Jiomnie, et il se faisoit craindre et par terre et par mer.
This was very rough. The king's answer was: Je me
VOL. l. L

146

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. V. feray craindre aussi a mon tour: but he was scarce as
good as his word1.

Cromwell's favourite alliance was with Sweden. Carolus
Gustavus and he lived in a great conjunction of counsels 2.
Even Algernon Sidney, who was not inclined to think or
speak well of kings, commended him to me, and said he
had just notions of public liberty; and added, that queen
Christina seemed to have them likewise. But she was
much changed from that, when I waited on her at Rome ;
for she complained of us as a factious nation, that did not
readily comply with the commands of our princes. All
Italy trembled at the name of Cromwell, and seemed under
82 a panic fear as long as he lived. His fleet scoured the
Mediterranean : and the Turks durst not offend him, but
delivered up Hyde 3, that kept up the character of an am-
bassador from the king there, who was brought over and

July 10, executed for it. And the putting the brother of the king of
Portugal's ambassador to death for murder, was the carrying
justice very far ; since, though in the strictness of the law of

1654.

1 Boreel might upon that occasion
represent Cromwell as a tyrant that
frighted people into doing unreason-
able things ; but it is highly improb-
able that he should be so simple a
brute, as to fall into encomiums upon
Oliver before the king, as a means
to obtain his ends : but Burnet was
always ready to believe and report
any vulgar stuff he heard, to the
disparagement of King Charles the
Second. D. John Boreel was
resident ambassador in England in
1671, 1672. He was ambassador
also in the reign of William III.
Another Boreel, William, was am-
bassador to France from 1650 to
his death, shortly after 1668. Pon-
talis, Jean de Witt, i. 126 ; ii. 158.

3 See Whitelocke's Journal of the
Swedish Embassy, and the discus-
sion in Ranke, iii. 119-128, upon
the political objects of this alliance.

Cf. Pontalis, Jean de Witt, i. 154,

155-

3 Sir Henry Hyde was first cousin
to Clarendon. He was the sixth
son of Sir Laurence Hyde ; Claren-
don being the son of Henry Hyde
of Hinton, brother of Sir Laurence.
Le Neve, Knights' Pedigrees, 59. He
was appointed by Charles I as ambas-
sador to Turkey, and was sent home
by Sir Thomas Bendish, the minister
of the Commonwealth. He appears
to have obtained the latter's dis-
charge by the Sultan, and to have
urged the merchants of the Levant
company to declare for the king.
He was tried by the High Court of
Justice, and beheaded March 4,
165^. See the account by Thomas
Newsom, Harl. MSS. 6210, ff. 42-
52 ; A Perfect Diurnal, Brit. Mus. E.
784, 22 ; Cat. Clar. St. P. ii. 95,
no. Evelyn, Sept. 24, 1664.

before the Restoration. 147

nations it is only the ambassador's own person that is ex- CHAP. V.

empted from any authority but his master's that sends him,

| yet the practice had gone in favour of all that the ambas- MS. 43.
sador owned to belong to him 1. Cromwell shewed his good
understanding in nothing more than in seeking out capable
and worthy men for all employments, but most particularly
for the courts of law, which gave a general satisfaction.

Thus he lived, and at last died, on his auspicious third
of September2, of so slight a sickness, that his death 1658.
was not looked for. He had two sons, and four daughters.
His sons were weak3, but honest men. Richard, the
eldest, though declared protector in pursuance of a nomi-
nation pretended to be made by him, the truth of which
was much questioned 4, was not at all bred to business, nor
indeed capable of it. He was innocent of all the ill his
father had done : so there was no prejudice lay against
him : and both the royalists and presbyterians fancied he
favoured them, though he pretended to be an independent.
But all the commonwealth party cried out upon his assum-
ing the protectorship, as a high usurpation ; since whatever
his father had from his parliaments was only personal, and
so fell with him5: yet in opposition to this, the city. of
London, and all the counties and cities almost in England,
sent up addresses congratulatory, as well as condoling. So
little do these pompous appearances of respect signify.
Tillotson told me, that a week after Cromwell's death he
being by accident at Whitehall, and hearing there was to
be a fast that day in the household, he out of curiosity
went into the presence chamber where it was held. On

1 This was, according to Welwood, is completely at variance with the
101, quoted as a precedent for the text as to Henry, who bore the char-
arrest of Furstenberg at the treaty acter of a strong and able man, which
of Cologne in 1673. See note to is well illustrated in Lord E. Fitz-
f. 354. maurice's Life of Sir W. Petty.

2 On that day he had defeated the 4 ' A puzzled nomination, and that
Scotch at Dunbar, and the next year very dark and imperfect' Burton,
the king at Worcester. R. Diary, iii. 160. Ludlow, ii. 43.

3 But see Henry Cromwell's letters 5 Cf. Ranke, iii. 223.
in Thurloe's papers. O. The evidence

L 2

148

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP.V. the one side of a table Richard with the rest of Cromwell's
family were placed, and six of the preachers were on the
other side : Thomas Goodwin, Owen, Caril, and Sterry,
were of the number. There he heard a great deal of
strange stuff, enough to disgust a man for ever of that
enthusiastic boldness. God was, as it were, reproached
with Cromwell's services, and challenged for taking him
away so soon. Goodwin, who had pretended to assure
them in a prayer that he was not to die, which was but
a very few minutes before he expired, had now the impu-
dence to say to God, Thou hast deceived us, and we 'tvere
83 deceived. Sterry, praying for Richard, used those indecent
words, next to blasphemy, Make him tJie brightness of
the father's glory, and the express image of his person *.
Richard was put on giving his father a pompous funeral,
by which his debts increased so upon him, that he was
soon run out of all credit. When the parliament met, his
party tried to get a recognition of his protectorship : but it
soon appeared they had no strength to carry it. Fleet-
wood, that married Ireton's widow, set up a council of
officers : and these resolved to lay aside Richard, who had
neither genius nor friends, neither treasure nor army to
support him 2. He desired only security for the debts he
had contracted ; which was promised, though not per-
June,i6s9. formed. And so without any struggle he withdrew, and
became a private man 3. And as he had done hurt to
nobody, so nobody did ever study to hurt him ; by a rare
instance both of the instability of human greatness and of

1 See the description of this in
Ludlow, ii. 45, and Baillie, iii. 425.

2 Richard's Protectorship was re-
cognised, but not his right to com-
mand the army as Lord General.
The army demanded the separation
of the offices, and the right of
choosing the Lord General them-
selves. It was when it was clear
that Parliament would proclaim
Richard Lord General, that the army

turned them out, and, declaring for
a pure Republic without a ' single
person,' forced Richard to resign.
Ludlow, ii. 54, &c.

3 Parliament promised payment
of his debts, £29,000, July 16, 1659 ;
voted him an income (which was
not paid) of £8,700 and lands to
the value of £5,000 a 3'ear, and
immunity from arrest for six months,
July 4. Diet. Nat, Biog. • Com-

before the Restoration.

149

the security of innocence. His brother had been made by CHAP.V.
the father lieutenant of Ireland, and had the most spirit of ~~
the two ; but he could not stand his ground when his
brother let go his hold l. One of Cromwell's daughters
was married to Claypole, and died a little before himself:
another was married to the earl of Fauconberg, a wise and
worthy woman, more likely to have maintained the post
than either of her brothers ; according to a saying that
went of her. that those who wore breeches deserved petti-
coats better, but if those in petticoats had been in *breeches
they would have held them faster2. The other daughter
was married, first to the earl of Warwick's heir, and after-
wards to one Russell. I knew both the lady Fauconberg
and her sister. They were both very worthy a persons 3.

a substituted for extraordinary.

nions Journals. See also Ludlow,
73, 136, 166. He went to France
early in the summer of 1660, and is
stated (Diet. Nat. Biog.^) not to have
returned until 1680. See Pepys, Oct.
13, 1664. But from the CaL St. P.
Dom. 1672, 335, 336, 340, 563, 569,
570, we find that he was regarded
as dangerous by the government,
and that an unavailing attempt was
secretly made in that year to secure
him at his house near Winchester.
How or whither he disappeared so
as utterly to baffle search does not
appear. He died at Cheshunt, 1712.
1 Henry Cromwell was entirely
opposed to the demands of the army
and the Anabaptist faction, and was
anxious to retain the parliamentary
constitution. In Mr. Hutchinson's
eyes indeed he was ' a debauched
ungodly cavalier.' Firth, Memoirs of
Hutchinson, ii. 203. See his letter to
Fleetwood, Oct. 20, 1658. Thurloe,
vii. 454. He was recalled June 7,1659,
and succeeded by Ludlow July 18.
Ludlow, ii. 101. He died 1674,
having lived in Cambridgeshire with-

out molestation since the Restoration.

2 She outlived the Earl of Faucon-
berg, who, by her prudent manage-
ment (as it was generally thought),
was a privy counsellor to Oliver,
Richard, King Charles the Second,
King James the Second, and King
William the Third. [He was not
created an earl until 1689.] After
his death [ 1 700] she desired Sir Harry
Sheers to write an inscription for his
monument, and would have it insert-
ed, that in such a year he married his
highness the then Lord Protector of
England's daughter ; which Sir Harry
told her, he feared might give of-
fence : she answered, that nobody
could dispute matters of fact, there-
fore insisted that it should be in-
serted. I do not know if it were
ever erected, but Sir Harry told me
the story, with some encomiums
upon the spirit of the lady. D. She
died in 1712.

3 Cromwell's daughters were mar-
ried as follows : Bridget, first to
Ireton and secondly to Fleet-
wood ; Elizabeth, who died Aug. 6,

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. VI.

CHAPTER VI.

FROM THE DEATH OF CROMWELL TO THE RESTORATION.

UPON Richard's leaving the stage, the commonwealth
was again set up : and the parliament which Cromwell
had broke was brought together 1 : but the army and they
fell into new disputes : so they were again broke by them :
and upop that the nation was like to fall into great con-
vulsions 2. The enthusiasts became very fierce, and talked
of nothing but the destroying all the records and the law,
which, they said, had been all made by a succession of
tyrants and papists : so they resolved to model all of new
by a levelling and a spiritual government of the saints.
There was so little sense in this, that a Nevill and Harring-
ton 3, with some others, set up in Westminster a meeting

a A name has been erased here before that of Nevill, which has some
resemblance to Herbert, but is not that : it begins with H and ends with t.

1658, to John Claypole ; Mary to
Lord Falconbridge or Fauconberg ;
Frances, first to Robert Rich, grand-
son of the Earl of Warwick, a match
to conciliate the Presbyterians, and
secondly to Sir John Russell. The
first marriage of the last named (1657)
was noted because at the wedding
' they had 48 violins and 50 trumpets
and much mirth with frolics, besides
mixt dancing (a thing heretofore
accounted profane) 'till 5 of the
clock in the morning.' ' The Earl of
Newport danced with her Highness.'
H. M. C Report, v. 177 : which con-
tradicts the account in Ludlow, ii. 38,
of a secret marriage.

1 I . e. the Rump, dissolved April 20,
1653, restored May 7, 1659, by the
army and republicans as the nearest
approach hitherto realized to the
Republic which the army desired to
establish. It was expelled by Lam-
bert on Oct. 13, 1659.

2 The wide gaps in the narrative
here can be best supplied from
Ludlow and Ranke, iii. 235 272. It
was in the antagonism of the 'en-
thusiasts ' and presbyterians that, in
the summer of 1659, Hyde saw the
best chance for the king. ' I wonder
we hear nothing, or very little, in
these great changes, of Harrison;
who with his Fifth Monarchy men,
would be the fittest instruments to
promote the confusion, and must be
as little pleased with the form of
government that is like to be estab-
lished by this Parliament as we can
be.' H. M. C. Report, x. App. vi.
264. Hyde to Mordaunt, June 4,
1659. At the same time Mordaunt
wrote to Hyde, ' The common dis-
course in the very streets is, "No
Peace to England without the King." '
Id. 267 . Cf. supra 1 22 - 1 24 and notes .

3 James Harrington, political writer,
author of Oceana, and founder of

before the Restoration. 151

to consider of a form of government that should secure CHAP.VI.
liberty, and yet preserve the nation. They ran chiefly on
having a parliament elected by ballot, in which the nation
should be represented according to the proportion of what
was paid in taxes towards the public expense : and by this
parliament a council of twenty-four was to be chosen by
ballot : and every year eight of these were to be changed, 84
and might not again be brought into it but after an interval
of three years : by these the nation was to be governed,
and they were to give an account of the administration to
the parliament every year. This meeting was a matter
both of diversion and scorn, to see a few persons take upon
them to form a scheme of government : and it made many
conclude it was necessary to call home the king, that so
matters | might again fall into their old channel. Lambert MS. 44.
became the man on whom their army depended most l.
Upon his forcing the parliament, great applications were
made to Monk to declare for the parliament: but under
this the declaring for the king was generally understood ;
yet he kept himself ori such a reserve, that he declared all
the while in the most solemn manner a for a commonwealth,
and against a single person, in particular against the king :
so that none had any ground from him to believe he
had any design that way2. Some have thought that he

a possible struck out.

the Rota Club in 1659, which met 1119 (ed. 1817); Ward, Lives of

at Miles's Coffee House in Old the Professors of Gresham College,

Palace Yard, and lasted for only 221 ; Milton, Ready and Easy Way

a few months. See Butler's satire to establish a Free Commonwealth.
upon it in Genuine Remains, 1756, x In the Nicholas Papers there is

i. 317. In 1661 he was sent to the strong evidence that Lambert was

Tower on suspicion of treason, and planning a restoration, one condition

thence to the island of St. Nicholas, of which was that his daughter

where he appears to have partially should marry the Duke of York,
or wholly lost his reason. He was 2 « That you would be pleased to

discharged and died in 1677. See hasten the settlement of the govern-

Pepys, Jan. 10, 17, 1660; Masson, ment of these nations in a Common-

Milton, vi.; Aubrey's Letters, Bodl. wealth's way, in successive parlia-

ii. part 2, 371 ; Wood,. Ath. Ox. iii. ments,soe to be regulated in elections

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. VI. intended to try, if it was possible, to set up for himself :
others believed rather, that he had no settled design any
way, and resolved to do as occasions should be offered to
him. The Scottish nation did certainly hope he would
Inserted bring home the king1 a He drew the greatest part of the
bhmkleaf armv towards the borders, where Lambert advanced near
of MS. him, who had 7000 horse. Monk was stronger in foot 2 :
and being apprehensive of engaging on such disadvantage,
he sent Clarges to the lord Fairfax for his advice and
assistance, who returned answer by Dr. Fairfax, now secre-
tary to the archbishop of Canterbury, and assured him he
would raise Yorkshire on the first of January ; and he
desired him to press upon Lambert, in case that he sent
1660. a detachment to Yorkshire. On the first of January, Fair-

a The following passage has been struck out, and the one above sub-
stituted: — , and therefore that he drew the greatest part of his army towards
Newcastle, yet the nation advanced all the money he called for towards the pay
and subsistence of the army. Lambert marched towards him with the whole
strength of the Enthusiasts, but they were grown so odious and so dreadful that
the stream of the nation turned strangely against them, and their hearts seemed
to fail them in their extremity. Fairfax raised Yorkshire. It is worth noticing
that usually in the original MS. passages Monck's name is spelt Monk, but
in the later added passages, as well as in some original parts further on
(pp. 299, 300), the c is inserted.

as you shall thinke fit.' Monk to the
Speaker, Oct. 13, 1659. Portland
MSS. H. M. C. Rep. xiii. App. ii. 99.
See also his letter to Lambert, id.,
and that to Haselrig as late as Feb.
13, 1660, Cal. Clar. St. P. iii. 678.
Mr. Firth's analysis of this part of
Monk's career in the Diet. Nat. Biog.
is especially valuable.

1 The disposal of Scotch places in
the Government was being privately
and provisionally considered by
Lauderdale's friends in January.
Alexander Bruce to Lauderdale,
Jan. ^f , 1660. Transcripts of the corre-
spondence of Sir R. Moray and Bruce.
See Scottish Review, Jan. 1885, 22.

a He had, moreover, plenty of

money, while Lambert was obliged
to alienate Yorkshire by forced contri-
butions. Monk declined all military
help from Scotland, and left four
regiments there. He marched with
5,000 foot and 2,000 horse. Brian
Fairfax, who had good opportunities
of knowing, says, ' It must be
acknowledged that my Lord Fairfax
was the first man that ever declared
his mind for restoring the King ;
which he did first by a message
to Monk by Dr. Troutbeck into
Scotland, and next to Monk himself,
who came to meet him at Nun Apple-
ton. Sic vos non vobisj H. M. C.
Rep. vi. 467.

before the Restoration. 153

fax appeared with about 100 gentlemen and their servants. CHAP. VI.
But so much did he still maintain his great credit with the
army, that the night after, the Irish brigade, that consisted
of 1200 horse, and was the rear of Lambert's army, came
over to him. Upon that Lambert retreated, finding his
army was so little sure to him, and resolved to march back
to London. He was followed by Monk, who when he
came to Yorkshire met with Fairfax, and offered to resign
the chief command to him. The lord Fairfax refused it,
but pressed Monk to declare for a free parliament : yet in
that he was so reserved to him, that Fairfax knew not how
to depend on him l. But as Lambert was making haste
up, his army mouldered away, and he himself was brought
up a prisoner, and was put in the Tower of London. Yet April,
not long after he made his escape2, and gathered a few
troops about him in Northamptonshire ; but these were
soon scattered*: for Ingoldsby3, though one of the king's 85
judges, raised Buckinghamshire against him. And so little
force seemed now in that party, that with very little oppo-
sition Ingoldsby took him prisoner, and brought him into

1 See the story in Welwood, 107, one of the regicides, to earn his
about the Parliament sending secret pardon. Clarendon, xvi. 224, 226.
orders to Col. Wilkes to secure Monk. This he did by the seizure of Windsor

2 April n, 1660. See the account Castle from the Parliament (though
in Rugge's Diurnal ; British Museum it is doubtful whether this was the
Add. MSS. 10,116, 10,117. work of Richard or his brother

3 Ingoldsby was a Buckingham- Henry) and the suppression of
shire man, being the second son of Lambert's revolt, April 22, 1660. On
Sir Richard Ingoldsby of Lenthen- April 20, 1661, at the coronation, he
borough. In 1647 he sat for Wend- was made a Knight of the Bath, and
over, and in 1654 and 1656 for sat for Aylesbury throughout the
Buckinghamshire. He served on reign of Charles II, but does not
the Council of State in 1652, and appear ever to have addressed the
was called to Cromwell's House of House. He died in 1685. In a MS.
Lords in Dec. 1657. He supported list in the Melfort Papers, which
Richard Cromwell, to whom he were sold in 1829 [but which cannot
was related, his mother being the now be traced], it is stated that
daughter of Sir Oliver Cromwell of he was among those detained during
Hinchinbrook in Huntingdonshire. the prosecution of the Rye House
Upon Richard's fall he negotiated Plot. Noble, Protectoral House of
for Charles's favour, but was left, as Cromwell, 184, 187, 190.

154

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. VI. Northampton : where Lambert, as Ingoldsby told me, enter-
tained him with a pleasant reflection for all his misfortunes.
The people were in great crowds applauding and rejoicing
for the success : so Lambert put Ingoldsby in mind of
what Cromwell had said to them both, near that very
place, in the year 1650, when they, with a body of the
officers, were going down after their army that was march-
ing to Scotland, the people all the while shouting and
wishing them success : Lambert upon that said to Crom-
well, he was glad to see they had the nation of their side :
Cromwell answered, do not trust to that ; for these very
persons would shout as much if you and I were going to be
hanged. So Lambert said he looked of himself now as in a
fair way to that, and began to think Cromwell prophesied.
Upon the dispersing Lambert's army, Monk marched

Feb. 1660. southward, and was now the object of all men's hope l. At
London all sorts of people began to cabal together, royalists,
presbyterians, and republicans. Holies told me, the pres-
byterians pressed the royalists to be quiet, and to leave
the game in their hands ; for their appearing would give
jealousy, and hurt that which they meant to promote 2.
He and Ashley Cooper, Grimston and Annesley, met
often with Manchester, Robarts, and the rest of the presby-
terian party : and the ministers of London were very active
in the city : so that when Monk came up, he was pressed
to declare himself3. At first he would only declare for the

1 Lambert's escape and recapture
were in April, two months sub-
sequent to Monk's arrival in London
on Feb. 3. At the Restoration he
was imprisoned first in Guernsey
until 1667, and afterwards on the
Isle of St. Nicholas in Plymouth
Sound until his death in 1683.

2 As early as December, i656,Hyde
noted that the Presbyterians were
more vehement for a restoration than
either Cavaliers or Catholics, fearing
lest it might be obtained without
their co-operation (Cal. Clar. St. P.

iii. 212, Langdale to Hyde) : fearing,
too, that until the king was restored
they must always be at the mercy of
the army.

3 ' Monk is, I suppose, what he
was ; . . . and what that is a far wiser
man than myself cannot tell : greate
confidence is expressed on both
sides.' Sir R. Burgoyne to Sir R.
Verney, Jan. 26, 1660, Verney MSS.
' Monk was at the House on Monday
last, who expressed himself so
obscurely that most men know not
what construction for to make of

before the Restoration. 155

parliament that Lambert had forced. But there was then CHAP. VI.
a great fermentation all over the nation. Monk and the
parliament grew jealous of one another, even while they
tried who could give the best words, and express their
confidence in the highest terms of one another. I will
pursue the relation of this transaction no further : for this
matter is well known.

The king had gone in autumn 1659 to the meeting at 1659.
the Pyrenees, where cardinal Mazarin and Don Louis de
Haro were negotiating a peace1. He applied himself to
both sides, to try what assistance he might expect upon
their concluding the peace. It was then known that he
went to mass sometimes, that so he might recommend
himself the more effectually to both courts ; yet this was
carried secretly, and was confidently denied. Mazarin still
talked to Lockhart upon the foot of the old confidence:
for he went thither to watch over the treaty ; though England
was now in such convulsions, that no minister from thence
could be much considered, unless it was upon his own
account. But matters were ripening so fast towards a 86
revolution in England, that the king came back to Flanders
in all haste, and went from thence to Breda. Lockhart
had it in his power to have made a great fortune, if he had
begun first, and had brought the king to Dunkirk. As
soon as the peace of the Pyrenees was made, he came over,
and found Monk at London, and took all the pains he
could to penetrate into his designs. But Monk continued
still to protest to him in the solemnest manner possible
that he would be true to the commonwealth, and against

it.' Id. These are only two of a great event. A secret article promised on

number of such notices in this cor- Charles's part a suspension of all the

respondence. Cf. Rugge's Diurnal, penal laws, and an endeavour to

Jan. 21, i6f$. secure their revocation, with the

1 Charles had been negotiating acceptance of Ormond's treaty with

with Spain for several years. In the Irish Catholics in 1648. Clar.

1656 a treaty had been arranged— St. P., April 12 and Nov. 27, 1756.

in expectation of Cromwell's murder The negotiations at the Peace of the

—by which Spain promised to assist Pyrenees were abortive. Ranke,

him in taking advantage of that iii. 247-249.

156

A Summary of Affairs

Feb. 9,
1660.

CHAP. vi. the royal family1. Lockhart went away, persuaded that
matters would continue still in that state : so that when
his old friend Middleton writ to him desiring him to make
his own terms, if he would invite the king to Dunkirk, he
said, he was trusted by the commonwealth, and could not
betray them.

The house of commons put Monk on breaking the gates
of the city of London, not doubting but that would render
him so odious to them, that it would force him to depend
wholly on themselves. He did it : and soon after he saw
how odious he was become by it. So conceiving a high
indignation at those who had put him on such an ungra-
cious piece of service, he sent about all that night to the
ministers and other active citizens, assuring them that he
would quickly repair that error, if they would forgive it.
So the turn was sudden : for the city sent and invited him
to dine the next day at Guildhall : and there he declared
for the members whom the army had forced away in 47
and 48, who were known by the name of the secluded mem-
bers. | And some happening to call the body that then sat
at Westminster, the Rump of a Parliament'*, a sudden
humour run like a madness through the whole city of roast-
ing the rump of all sorts of animals ; and thus the city
expressed themselves sufficiently. Those at Westminster
had now no support : so they fell unpitied and unregarded.
The secluded members came, and sat down among them ;
but all they would do was to give orders for the summon-
ing a new parliament to meet the first of May : and so they
declared themselves dissolved 3.

Feb. ii,
MS. 45.

1 Ludlow's Memoirs (1698) are
apparently Burnet's chief authority
for all this.

2 ' He seemed at first to court the
Rump, but since I heere he hath
closed with the Citty which can pay
his army surer and sooner.' Verney
MSS. John Stukely to Sir R.
Verney, Feb. 16, 1660. The term
' Rump ' is used in these MSS.

at a date prior to that of these
events, and is as early as 1653. Of
the Long Parliament 420 were dead
or excluded, or had withdrawn.

3 Cf. Rugge's Diurnal, and the
following from the Vemey MSS. :
'Rump major' [i.e. the Rump with
the secluded members] begins to
smell as rank as Rump minor. . . .
At the committee last night they

.
1660. '

before the Restoration.

There was still a murmuring in the army ; so great care CHAP, vi
was taken to scatter them in wide quarters, and not to
suffer too many of those who were still for the old cause
to lie near one another. The well and the ill affected were
so mixed, that in case of any insurrection some might be
ready at hand to resist them. They changed the officers
that were ill affected, who were not thought fit to be trusted
with the commanding those of their own stamp : and so
created a mistrust between the officers and the soldiery.
And above all they took care to have no more troops than 87
was necessary about the city : and these were the best
affected. This was managed with great diligence and
skill : and by this conduct was that great turn brought
about without the least tumult or any bloodshed ; which
was beyond what any person could have imagined. Of
all this Monk had both the praise and the reward ; though
I have been told a very small share of it belonged to him1 .
Admiral Montague2 was then in the chief command at sea,

banded hard for a qualification
that none should elect or be elected
but such as had eminently acted
against the King, but it could not
be carried : one moved upon the
covenant the clean contrary, that
none might but those that had
acted for king and parliament. I
heare no man speake against it.'
Dr. Denton to Sir R. Verney, March
2, 1660. The dissolution was one
of the conditions upon which Monk
secured the restoration of the se-
cluded members. Prynne fought
hard against it, but ' Mr. Annesley
answered ingeniously, confessing his
arguments were not to be answered,
but moved to dissolve.' The same
to the same, March 8, 1660. The
new Parliament met April 25.

1 Upon Monk's skilful choice of
men to deal with the different parties,
see Mr. Firth's article in the Diet.
Nat. Biog.

2 In a letter to Arlington, Nov. 20,
1667, while ambassador at Madrid, he
says, 'I shall make no new declara-
tion unto your Lordship, but revive
the remembrance of my Master's first
reception of me into his Grace and
Favour, which was placed upon a
person already struck with the in-
gratitude my youthful follies had
drawn me into, towards the King my
master, the son of whose servant I
was, and of a family obliged to the
Crown for many generations ; and
being in this condition, God knows,
from no other principle of Interest, my
heart entertained his Majesty's kind-
ness with unexpressible joy,' &c
Original Letters and Negotiations of
Fanshaw, Sandwich, Sunderland and
Godolphin (London, 1724, 2 vols.
8vo.), ii. 88. Created Earl of Sand-
wich after the Restoration. He was
drowned at the battle of Southwold
Bay, June 7, 1672 ; f. 323.

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. VI. newly returned from the Sound, where he and De Ruyter,
upon the orders they received from their masters, had
brought the two northern kings to a peace ; the king of
Sweden dying as it was a making up. He was soon gained
to be for the king ; and he dealt so effectually with the
whole fleet, that the turn there was as silently brought
about, without any revolt or opposition, as it had been in
the army. The republicans went about as madmen, to
rouse up their party; but their time was past. All were
either as men amazed or asleep : they had neither the skill
nor the courage to make any opposition. The elections of
parliament men run all the other way. So they saw their
business was quite lost, and they felt themselves struck as
with a spirit of giddiness ; and then every man thought
only how to save or secure himself. And now they saw
how deceitful the argument was from success, which they
had used so oft, and triumphed so much upon. For whereas
success in the field, which was the foundation of their argu-
ment, depended much upon the conduct and courage of
armies, in which the will of man had a large share, here
was a thing of another nature. Their union was broke,
and their courage sank, without any visible reason for
either ; and a nation that had run on long in such a fierce
opposition to the royal family was now turned as one man
to call home the king.

The nation had one great happiness during the long
course of the civil wars, that no foreigners had got footing
among them l. Spain was sinking to nothing: France was
under a base spirited minister : and both were in war all
the while. Now a peace was made between them, and very
probably, according to what is in Mazarin's letters, they
would have joined forces to have restored the king. The
nation was by this means entirely in its own hands : and

1 The Restoration was equally
free of foreign interference. Monk
would not even let the Scotch take
part except by pecuniary aid. It is

clear, however, that but for the failure
of the Royalist risings in 1659, this
immunity would not have been pre-
served. Ranke, iii. 244.

before the Restoration. 159

now, returning to its wits, was in a condition to put every CHAP. VI.
thing in joint again : whereas, if foreigners had been pos-
sessed of any important place, they might have had a large
share of the management, and would have been sure to
have taken care of themselves. Enthusiasm was now lan-
guid : for that, owing its mechanical force to the liveliness
of the blood and spirits, men in disorder and depressed
could not raise in themselves those heats with which they 88
were formerly wont to transport both themselves and
others. Chancellor Hyde was all this while very busy : he
sent over Dr. Morley, who talked with the presbyterians
much of great moderation in general, but would enter into
no particulars : only he took care to let them know he was
a Calvinist : and they had the best opinion of such of the
church of England as were of that persuasion1. Hyde
wrote in the king's name to all the leading men, and got
the king himself to write a great many letters in a very
obliging manner. Some that had been faulty sent over
considerable presents, with assurances that they would
redeem all that was past with their zeal for the future.
These were all accepted of: their money was also very
welcome ; for the king needed money when his matters
were on that crisis, and he had many tools at work, the
management of which was so entirely the chancellor's single
performance that there was scarce any other that had so
much as a share in it with him. He kept a register of all
the king's promises, and of his own ; and did all that lay in

1 He was careful to secure certifi- Sir R. Moray to Alexander Bruce,

cates in other quarters. 'The Gal- March 12, 1660. Transcripts of ' Cor-

lican ministry have written to ours rtsportdenot. See also the Lander-

assuring them that the King is a dale Papers (Camden Soc.\i. 28 ; and

very good protestant.' Dr. Denton Rennet's History, 238, and Register,

to Sir R. Verney, April 6, 1660, no, for letters from Protestant

Verney MSS. ' With this next post ministers and others in France. For

there goes over 4 or 5 very good Morley's mission, see Oar. St. P.

letters from 3 of the ministers here iii. ; Wood, Ath. Ox., and Calamy's

[Paris], and others of other places, Abridgment, 569. Hyde was ap-

wherein they say handsome things of pointed Chancellor in January,

the King's firmness to our [religion].' 1658.

i6o

A Summary of Affairs

April 25,
1660.

CHAP. VI. his power afterwards to get them all to be performed. He
was also all that while giving the king many wise and good
advices ; but he did it too much with the air of a governor,
or of a lawyer. Yet then the king was wholly in his hands 1.
I need not open the scene of the new parliament, or con-
vention, as it came afterwards to be called, because it was
not summoned by the king's writ. Such an unanimity
appeared in their proceedings, that there was not the least
dispute among them, but upon one single point: yet that
was a very important one. Hale 2, afterwards the famous
chief justice, moved that a committee might be appointed
to look into the propositions that had been made, and the
concessions that | had been offered by the late king during
the war, particularly at the treaty of Newport, that from
thence they might digest such propositions as they should
think fit to be sent over to the king. This was well
seconded, but I do not remember by whom. It was fore-
seen that such a motion might be set on foot : so Monk

MS. 46.

1 When the Earl of Clarendon's
history was first published [1702^,
the Lord Granville, second son to
the Earl of Bath, told me that Monk
had always a very particular dislike
to Chancellor Hyde, and when he
sent his father to Breda, gave him
strict charge not to trust Hyde with
anything that related to his own
concerns, and desired the same
caution might be given the king;
and his father told him, the chief
thing that staggered Monk in the
whole transaction was the necessity
of having anything to do with him ;
which Hyde soon found out, and
endeavoured ever after to lessen
Monk's merits as much as he could,
and Lord Bath's for the same reason.
D.

2 In 1682 Burnet published The
Life and Death of Sir M. Hale; and
a second edition in the same year
contained additional notes by Baxter.

There is an elaborate modern work
upon him by Williams. In the con-
densed and vivid sketch of Hale as
Lord Chief Justice, which occurs
in Roger North's autobiography, the
writer refers thus to Burnet's work :
' Gilbert Burnet has pretended to
write his life, but wanted both in-
formation and understanding for such
an undertaking. Nay, that which he
intended chiefly, to touch the people
with a panegyric, he was not fit for,
because he knew not the virtues he
had fit to be praised, and I should
recommend to him the lives of Jack
Cade, Wat Tyler, or Cromwell as
characters fitter for his learning and
pen to work upon than him.' North,
it should be mentioned, always spells
Hale's name with a final 's.' See also
Marvell, Growth of Popery and Arbi-
trary Government, ed. Grosart, iv. 315,
upon ' good Sir Matthew Hales.'

before the Restoration. 161

was instructed how to answer it, whensoever it should be CHAP. VI.
proposed. He told the house, that there was yet, beyond
all men's hopes, an universal quiet all over the nation ; but
there were many incendiaries still at work, trying where
they could first raise the flame. He said, he had such
copious informations sent him of these things, that it was
not fit they should be generally known: he could not
answer for the peace, either of the nation or of the army, if
any delay was put to the sending for the king : what need
was there of sending propositions to him ? Might they not 89
as well prepare them, and offer them to him, when he
should come over ? He was to bring neither army nor
treasure with him, either to fright them or to corrupt them.
So he moved, that they would immediately send commis-
sioners to bring over the king : and said, that he must lay
the blame of all the blood or mischief that might follow on
the heads of those that should still insist on any motion May 3-8,
that might delay the present settlement of the nation.
This was echoed with such a shout over the house, that
the motion was no more insisted on *.

This was indeed the great service that Monk did. It
was chiefly owing to the post he was in, and to the credit
he had gained : for as to the restoration itself, the tide
made so strong that he only went into it so dexterously as
to get much fame and great rewards for that which will
have still a great appearance in history. If he had died
soon after, he might have been more justly admired, because
less known, and seen only in one advantageous light : but
he lived long enough to have his stupidity and his other ill

1 Carte's Ornwnd, iii. 706 (Clar. Sir R. Verney, March 8, 1660, Verney

Press); Pepys, April 29, 1660. But MSS. In the Latin preamble by

if the readiness to bring back the Sir R. Fanshawe to Monk's patent

king upon any terms, or without he is styled ' Victor sine sanguine.'

terms, needs explanation, it is pro- Peck, Desiderata Curiosa, ii. 514.

bably best found in the following See also Evelyn, May 29, 1660:

woman's exclamation : 'I pray God 'And all this was done without

send mee my life to see peace in our one drop of blood shed, and by that

dayes, and that friends may live to re- very army which rebelled against

joice each other.' Penelope Denton to him.'
VOL. I. M

162

A Summary of Affairs

CHAP. VI. qualities be well known : so false a judgment are men apt
to make upon outward appearances1. To the king's coming
in without conditions may be well imputed all the errors
of his reign : and therefore when the earl of Southampton
came to see and feel what he was a like to prove a, he said
once in great wrath to chancellor Hyde, it was to him they
owed all they either felt or feared ; for if he had not pos-
sessed them in all his letters with such an opinion of the
king, they would have taken care to have put it out of his
power either to do himself or them that mischief that was
like to be the effect of their trusting him so entirely. Hyde
answered, that he thought he had so true a judgment, and
so much good nature, that when the age of pleasure should
be over, and the idleness of his exile, which made him seek
new pleasures for want of other employment, was turned
to an obligation to mind affairs, then he would have shaken
off those unhappy entanglements 2. I must often put my

a interlined afterwards.

1 Pepys speaks of Monk in like
terms, Oct. 24, 1667. After observing
that the House of Commons had that
day voted thanks to Prince Rupert
and the Duke of Albemarle for their
care and conductin the last year's war,
he says, ' this is a strange act, but I
know not how the blockhead Albe-
marle hath strange luck to be loved,
though (and every man must know
it) the heaviest man in the world,
but stout and honest to his country.'
R. See, too, the description of him
quoted from Montconis by Lingard,
xii. 227 (ed. 1829). Burnet ignores
the great,if phlegmatic courage which
Monk displayed so abundantly in
the murderous naval battles of the
first Dutch war. For an amusing
proof of his strength of head, see
Jusserand, A French Ambassador at
the court of Charles II, 96 ; cf. infra 1 78.

3 The chancellor was afraid on

the church's account, in case Male's
motion (supra 160) had been carried,
that it would not have been restored,
and on the part of the monarchy, that
it would have been perhaps too much
limited. It should at the same time
be remembered, that this statesman
abolished wardship, which Burnet
calls a main part of the regal au-
thority, and that he left the crown
in a great measure dependent on
parliaments for even its ordinary
support. [The formal abolition of
the Court of Wards — upon the pre-
vious abolition of which in 1645 and
1656 see supra 22, note — by the new
government, which did not of course
recognise the acts of the parliament
of 1656, was a foregone conclusion ;
before the Restoration Hyde had pre-
vented the king from bestowing the
office of master of the Court upon
Charles Berkeley. Diet. Nat Biog. on

before the Restoration.

reader in mind, that I leave all common transactions to CHAP VI.
ordinary books. If at any time I say things that occur in
other books, it is partly to keep the thread of the narration
in an unintangled method, and partly because I either
have not read these things in books, or, at least, I do not
remember to have read them so clearly and particularly as
I have related them. I now leave a mad and confused
scene, to open a more august and splendid one.

Hyde. A committee of the House of
Commons in the Convention Parlia-
ment was indeed named to prepare a
bill for the purpose as early as May
3, 1660.] The following account
was given to Pepys by Claren-
don's great opponent, Sir William
Coventry, of the advice offered
to the king by the Earl of South-
ampton, and of the conduct pursued
by the Earl of Clarendon : ' Sir W.
Coventry did tell me it as the wisest
thing that ever was said to the king
by any statesman of his time, and it
was by my lord treasurer that is
dead, whom, I find, he takes for
a very great statesman, that when
the king did show himself forward
for passing the Act of Indemnity, he
did advise the king that he would
hold his hand in doing it, till he had
got his power restored that had been
diminished by the late times, and his

revenue settled in such a manner as
he might depend on himself without
resting upon parliaments, and then
pass it. But my lord chancellor,
who thought he could have the com-
mand of parliaments for ever, be-
cause for the king's sake they were
awhile willing to grant all the king
desired, did press for its being done ;
and so it was, and the king from that
time able to do nothing with the
parliament almost.' Pepys, March 20.
i66|. The notion, that he had
neglected the interests of the crown
at so favourable a juncture, certainly
prevailed, and perhaps contributed
to the chancellor's fall ; but it may-
be doubted, whether, if willing, he
would have been able to have ob-
tained, even at that time, a large
permanent revenue for the king from
the loyal but frugal parliament. R.
See infra 277.

M 2

Ms.47 BOOK II.

Of the first twelve years of the reign of king Charles II,
from the year 1660 to the year 1673.

CHAPTER I.

ENGLISH AND SCOTCH CHARACTERS OF THE
RESTORATION.

CHAP. I. I DIVIDE king Charles his reign into two books, not so
much because, it consisting of twenty-four years, it fell, if
divided at all, naturally to put twelve years in a book : but
I have a much better reason for it, since as to the first
twelve years, though I knew the affairs of Scotland very
authentically, yet I had only such a general knowledge of
the affairs of England as I could pick up at a distance :
92 whereas I lived so near the scene, and had indeed such
a share in several parts of it, during the last twelve years,
that I can write of these with much more certainty, as well
as more fully, than of the first twelve. I will therefore
enlarge more particularly, within the compass that I have
fixed for this book, on the affairs of Scotland ; both out of
the inbred love that all men have to their native country,
but more particularly, that I may give some useful instruc-
tions to those of my own order and profession, concerning
the conduct of the bishops of Scotland : for having ob-
served, with more than ordinary niceness, all the errors that
were committed both at the first setting up of episcopacy
and in the whole progress of its continuance in Scotland, till
it was again overturned there, it may be of some use to see all
that matter in a full view and in a clear and true light.

As soon as it was fixed that the king was to be restored,
a great many went over to make their court : among these

Reign of King Charles II. 165

Sharp, who was employed by the resolutioners of Scotland, CHAP. I.
was one *. He carried with him a letter from the earl of
Glencairn to Hyde, made soon after earl of Clarendon 2,
recommending him as the only person capable to manage
the design of setting up episcopacy in Scotland : upon
which he was received into great confidence. Yet, as he
had observed very carefully the success of Monk's solemn
protestations against the king and for a commonwealth, it
seemed he was so pleased with the original, that he resolved
to copy after it, without letting himself be diverted from it
by anxious scruples, or any tenderness of conscience : for
he stuck neither at solemn protestations, both by word of
mouth and by letters, of which I have seen many proofs,
rior at appeals to God of his sincerity in acting for the
presbytery, both in prayers and on other occasions, joining
with these many dreadful imprecations on himself if he did
prevaricate. He was all the while maintained by the
presbyterians as their agent, and he continued to give them
a constant account of the progress of his negotiation in
their service, while he was indeed undermining it. This piece
of craft was so visible, he having repeated his protestations
to so many persons as they grew jealous of him, that when
he threw off the mask, about a year after this, it laid
a foundation of such a character of him, that nothing could
ever bring people to any tolerable thoughts of a man whose
dissimulation and treachery was so well known, and of
which so many proofs were to be seen under his own hand.
With the restoration of the king a spirit of extravagant
joy being spread over the nation, that brought on with it
the throwing off the very professions of virtue and piety : 93
all ended in entertainments and drunkenness, which overran

1 See his instructions in Crook- January 1885; and Burton, Hist, of

shank's Hist. Church of Scotland, 59. Scotland, ch. 77. See supra 114.
He took letters from Lauderdale * Hyde, who had been appointed

also, and was Monk's agent as well. Lord Chancellor, Jan. 13, 1658, was

The story of Sharp's persistent created, Nov. 3, 1660, Baron Hyde

knavery will be found in Baillie, iii. of Hindon ; and Viscount Cornbury

484 ; the Lauderdale Papers, \ ; the and Earl of Clarendon, on April 20,

Scottish Review for July 1884 and 1661.

i66

The History of the Reign

CHAP. I. the three kingdoms to such a degree, that it very much
corrupted all their morals 1. Under the colour of drinking
the king's health, there were great disorders and much riot
every where : and the pretences to religion, both in those
of the hypocritical sort, and of the more honest but no less
pernicious enthusiasts, gave great advantages, as well as
they furnished much matter, to the profane mockers at all
true piety. Those who had been concerned in the former
transactions thought they could not redeem themselves
from the censures and jealousies that these brought on
them by any method that was more sure and more easy,
than by going in to the stream, and laughing at all religion,
telling or making stories to expose both themselves and
their party as impious and ridiculous.

The king 2 was then thirty years of age, and, as might
have been supposed, past the levities of youth and the
extravagance of pleasure. He had a very good under-
standing : he knew well the state of affairs both at home
and abroad. He had a softness of temper, that charmed
all who came near him, till they found how little they could
depend on good looks, kind words, and fair promises, in
which he was liberal to excess, because he intended nothing
by them but to get rid of importunity, and to silence all
further pressing upon him. He seemed to have no sense
of religion : both at prayers and sacrament he, as it were,
took care to satisfy people that he was in no sort concerned
in that about which he was employed : so that he was very
far from being an hypocrite, unless his assisting at those
performances was a sort of hypocrisy, as no doubt it was ;
but he was sure not to increase that by any the least
appearance of devotion. He said once to my self, he was
no atheist, but he could not think God would make a man

1 See the remarkable passage in
Clarendon, Cont. 36-38.

- See Ranke, vi. 38, for Burnet's
characters of Charles, Clarendon,
Shaftesbury, Southampton, and Or-
mond, taken from the Harleian MSS.

6484. Compare with the character
here given of Charles that at the
end of the reign, f. 6n, and many
striking passages in the Memoirs of
Reresby and Sheffield, Duke of
Buckingham.

of King Charles II. 167

miserable only for taking a little pleasure out of the way. CHAP. I.
He disguised his popery to the last : but when he talked MS 8
freely, he could not help letting himself | out against the
liberty that under the Reformation all men took of inquiring
into matters: for from their inquiring into matters of religion,
they carried the humour further, to inquire into matters of
state. He said often, he thought government was a much
safer and easier thing where the authority was believed
infallible, and the faith and submission of the people was
implicit : about which I had once much discourse with him.
He was affable and easy, and loved to be made so by all
about him. The great art of keeping him long was, the
being easy, and the making every thing easy to him *. He 94
had made such observations on the French government,
that he thought a king who might be checked, or have his
ministers called to an account by a parliament, was but
a king in name. He had a great compass of knowledge,
though he was never capable of great application or study.
He understood the mechanics and physic : and was a good
chemist, and much set on several preparations of mercury,
chiefly the fixing it. He understood navigation well : but
above all he knew the architecture of ships so perfectly,
that in that respect he was exact rather more than became
a prince 2. His apprehension was quick, and his memory
good; and he was an everlasting talker3. He told his
stories with a good grace : but they came in his way too
often. He had a very ill opinion both of men and women ;
and did not think there was either sincerity or chastity in

1 His laboratory was useful to '2 Charles was never happier than

him as securing privacy. Robert when on board ship. ' If the wind

Moray in his correspondence with were fair for it, we should quickly

Lauderdale notices this more than expect him here again, and by long

once. In 1669, when a secret agent, sea, where twenty leagues are more

the Abbe Pregnani, was sent to pleasing to him than two by land.'

Charles by Louis XIV, his errand Arlington's Letters (1701), ii. 341-

was disguised underthepretencethat Pepys, May 4, 1663, and passim.

he came to aid him in his chemical 3 In 1650, ' he is naturally of few

studies. Mignet, Negotiations re/a- words, and speakes not much to any.'

fives a la succession eTEspagne, iii. A Brief Relation, April 2-9; Charles

73 74< II and Scotland in 1650, 46.

i68

The History of the Reign

CHAP. I. the world out of principle, but that some had either the one
or the other out of humour or vanity. He thought that
nobody served him out of love : and so he was quits with
all the world, and loved others as little as he thought they
loved him. He hated business, and could not be easily
brought to mind any : but when it was necessary, and he
was set to it, he would stay as long as his ministers had
work for him. The ruin of his reign, and of all his affairs,
was occasioned chiefly by his delivering himself up at his
first coming over to a mad range of pleasure 1. One of the
race of the Villiers, then married to Palmer, a papist, soon
after made earl of Castlemaine 2, who afterwards, being sepa-
rated from him, was advanced to be duchess of Cleveland,
was his first and longest mistress, by whom he had five
children 3. She was a woman of great beauty, but most
enormously vicious and ravenous, foolish but imperious,

1 Pepys, Dec. 3, 1666, gives from
hearsay Killigrew's reported re-
monstrance to Charles : ' There is
a good, honest, able man that I could
name, that if your majesty would
employ, and command to see all
things well executed, all things
would soon be mended ; and this is
one Charles Stuart, who now spends
his time in employing his lips about
the court, and hath no other employ-
ment ; but if you would give him
this employment, he were the fittest
man in the world to perform it.'

2 The patent for the Earl of Castle-
maine confined the title to the males
born 'of this wife, the Lady Barbary ;
the reason whereof everybody
knows.' Pepys, Dec. 7, 1661.

3 He had her the first night he
arrived at London ; she was then
some months gone with child of the
late Countess of Sussex, whom the
king adopted for his daughter, though
Lord Castlemaine always looked upon
her to be his, and left her his estate
when he died ; but she was generally
understood to belong to another, the

old Earl of Chesterfield, whom she re-
sembled very much both in face and
person. D. Barbara Villiers was
daughter and heiress of William
Villiers, Viscount Grandison, who fell
atEdgehill. She was born about 1642,
and was married in 1659 to Roger
Palmer, a student in the Temple; and
was created Duchess of Cleveland
Aug. 3, 1670. See Marvell, Last In-
structions to a Painter, 79-104. She
had six children, not five, by the
king; three sons, created Dukes of
Southampton and Cleveland, Graf-
ton, and Northumberland, and three
daughters, Anne, the one mentioned
in Dartmouth's note, who married
Thomas Lennard, Earl of Sussex, at
fourteen ; Charlotte, who became
Countess of Lichfield ; and Barbara,
who entered a nunnery in France.
She parted from her husband ' on
good terms' in 1666. Pepys, Dec.
12, 1666. She afterwards married
Beau Fielding, and prosecuted him for
bigamy; she died in 1709. See Stein-
man's Memoir rf Barbara, Duchess of
Cleveland, privately printed, 1871.

of King Charles II. 169

ever uneasy to the king, and always carrying on intrigues CHAP. I
with other men, while yet she pretended she was jealous of
him. His passion for her, and her strange behaviour
towards him, did so disorder him, that often he was not
master of himself, nor capable of minding business, which, in
so critical a time, required great application : but he did then
so entirely trust the earl of Clarendon that he left all to his
care, and submitted to his advices as to so many oracles.

The earl of Clarendon was bred to the law, and was like
to grow eminent in his profession. When the wars began
he distinguished himself so in the house of commons, that
he became considerable, and was much trusted all the
while the king was at Oxford. He stayed beyond sea
following the king's fortunes, till the restoration ; and
was now an absolute favourite, and the chief or the only
minister, but with too magisterial a way. He was always
pressing the king to mind his affairs, but in vain. He 95
was a good chancellor, only a little too rough, but
very impartial in the administration of justice1. He
never seemed to understand foreign affairs well : and yet
he meddled too much in them. He had too much levity
in his wit, and did not always observe the decorum of his
post. He was haughty 2, and was apt to reject those who
addressed themselves to him, with too much contempt.
He had such regard to the king, that when places were
disposed of, even otherwise than as he advised, yet he
would justify what the king did, and disparage the pre-
tensions of others, not without much scorn ; which created
him many enemies. He was indefatigable in business,

1 It is noted by Macdiarmid, Three Keeper of the Great Seal. His reform

British Statesmen, 538, that Clarendon of the procedure of the Court of

was careful to retain the Common- Chancery was known as ' Lord

wealth judges. See, however, Claren- Clarendon's Orders.' Lister, ii. 528.

don, Cont. 39. Onslow in a note See Pepys, May 27, 1667, &c., where

states that he was told by the Master he gives Clarendon the reputation

of the Rolls (Sir Thomas Clarke), that of selling places, and doing nothing

Clarendon never made a decree in except for money.

Chancery without the assistance of 2 'Like Jove the fulminant.' Last

two of the judges. This had been Instructions, 356.
a practice of Bishop Williams when

1 7o

The History of the Reign

CHAP. I. though the gout did often disable him from waiting on the
king : yet, during his credit, the king came constantly to
him when he was laid up by the gout.

The man next to him in favour with the king was the
duke of Ormond : a man every way fitted for a court, of
a graceful appearance, a lively wit, and a cheerful temper :
a man of great expense, decent even in his vices 1, for he
always kept up the forms of religion. He had gone through
many transactions in Ireland with more fidelity than success.
He had made a treaty with the Irish, which was broken
by the great body of them, though some few of them
adhered still to him 2. But the whole Irish nation did still
pretend, that, though they broke the agreement first, yet he.
or rather the king in whose name he had treated with them,
was bound to perform all the articles of the treaty. He
1649. had miscarried so in the siege of Dublin that it very much
lessened the opinion of his military conduct : yet his con-
stant attendance on his master, his easiness to him, and his
great sufferings for him, raised him to be lord steward of
the household, and lord lieutenant of Ireland. He was firm
to the protestant religion, and so far firm to the laws that
he always gave good advices : but even when bad ones were
followed, he was not for complaining too much of them.

MS. 49. | The earl of Southampton was next to these. He was
a man of great virtues, and of very good parts : he had a
lively apprehension, and a good judgment. He had merited
much by his constant adhering to the king's interests during
the war, and by the large supplies he had sent him every
year during his exile ; for he had a great estate, and only
three daughters to inherit it. He was made lord treasurer :
but he grew soon weary of business ; for as he was subject
to the stone, which returned often and violently upon him,
so he retained the principles of liberty, and did not go in to
the violent measures of the court. When he saw the king's
temper, and his way of managing, or rather of spoiling,

1 See Carte's Ormond, iv. 703.

2 See infra 309, and note thereto.
The details of these transactions will

be best read in Gardiner, Great Civil
War, ii. 112 et seq.

of King Charles II. 171

business, he grew very uneasy, and kept himself more out CHAP. I.
of the way than was consistent with that high post. The
king stood in some awe of him, and saw how popular he
would grow if put out of his service : and therefore he chose
rather to bear with his ill humour and contradiction, than to
dismiss him J. He left the business of the treasury wholly in
the hands of his secretary, sir Philip Warwick, who was an
honest but a weak man ; he understood the common road
of the treasury; but, though he pretended to wit and politics,
he was not cut out for that, and least of all for writing of
history. But he was an incorrupt man, and during seven
years management of the treasury he made but an ordinary
fortune out of it 2. Before the restoration the lord treasurer
had only a small salary, with an allowance for a table, but
he gave, or rather sold, all the subaltern places, and made
great profits out of the estate of the crown : but now, that
being gone, and the earl of Southampton disdaining to sell
places, the matter was settled so, that the lord treasurer
was to have .£8000 a year, and the king was to name all the
subaltern officers. And it continued to be so all his time :
but since that time the lord treasurer has both the £8000
and a main hand in the disposing of those places.

1 ' The good old man.' Pepys, then we should too late find it im-

May 15, 1663. ' Sir William Coventry possible ; which is, he says, now come

did to-day mightily magnify my late to pass.' Id. Feb. 14, 1669. He died

Lord Treasurer for a wise and solid, on May 16,1667, and was 'said to die

though infirm man : and, among other with the cleanest hands that ever any

things, that when he hath said it was Lord Treasurer did.' Id. May 19, 1667.
impossible in nature to find this or 2 Warwick had previously been

that sum of money, and my Lord secretary under Juxon. In 1660

Chancellor hath made sport of it, and he was restored also to the Clerkship

told the king that when my lord hath of the Signet, knighted, and elected

said it was impossible yet he hath for Westminster. He remained Se-

made shift to find it, and that was cretary to the Treasury until 1667,

by Sir G. Carteret's getting credit, and died in 1683. His memoirs

my lord did once in his hearing say were published in 1701. See Claren-

thus, which he magnifies as a great don, Cont. 816, 817, on his general

saying— that impossible would be worth, and Pepys, passim, on his

found impossible at last; meaning qualities as a business man. On

that the king would run himself out Southampton and his salary, see

beyond all his credit and funds, and Pepys, Sept. 9, 1665.

1 72

The History of the Reign

CHAP. I. The man that was in the greatest credit with the earl of
Southampton was sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, who had
married his niece *, and became afterwards so considerable,
that he was raised to be earl of Shaftesbury. Since he came
to have so great a name, and that I knew him for many
years, and in a very particular manner, I will dwell a little
longer on his character ; for it was of a very extraordinary
composition. He began to make a considerable figure
very early. Before he was twenty, he came into the house
of commons, and was on the king's side, and undertook to
get Wiltshire and Dorsetshire to declare for him, but he
was not able to effect it. Yet prince Maurice breaking
articles to a town that he had got to receive him, furnished
him with an excuse to forsake that side, and to turn to the
parliament 2. He had a wonderful faculty in speaking to
a popular assembly, and could mix both the facetious and
the serious way of arguing very agreeably. He had
a particular talent of making others trust to his judgment,
and depend on it : and he brought over so many to a sub-
mission to his opinion, that I never knew any man equal
to him in the art of governing parties, and of making
himself the head of them. He was, as to religion, a deist
at best 3. He had the dotage of astrology4 in him to a high

1 Margaret, daughter of the second
Lord Spencer of Wormleighton, and
sister of the Earl of Sunderland.
She was Cooper's third wife. By
this marriage he was connected also
with Lord Russell, who married
Southampton's second daughter.
Cooper was placed on the Privy
Council through Monk's influence.
Clarendon, Cont. 13; Cal St. P.
Dom. 1664-5, 436. He received a
grant of his office of Chancellor and
Under Treasurer of the Exchequer
for life in May, 1661. Id. 1660-1, 604.

z The question of Shaftesbury's
change of front will be found fully
discussed in the Diet. Nat. Biog.

3 A person came to make him
a visit whilst he was sitting one day

with a lady of his family, who
retired upon that to another part of
the room with her work, and seemed
not to attend to the conversation be-
tween the earl and the other person,
which turned soon into some dispute
upon subjects of religion ; after a
good deal of that sort of talk, the
earl said at last, 'People differ in
their discourse and profession about
these matters, but men of sense are
really but of one religion.' Upon
which says the lady of a sudden,
' Pray, my lord, what religion is
that which men of sense agree in ? '
' Madam,' says the earl immediately,
' men of sense never tell it.' O.

* Astrology was the fashionable
nonsense of the day. Cf. supra 47,

of King Charles II. 173

degree : he told me, that a Dutch doctor had from the stars CHAP. I.

foretold him the whole series of his life. But that which

was before him, when he told me this, proved false, if he
told true : for he said he was yet to be a greater man than 97
he had been. He fancied that after death our souls lived
in stars. He had a general knowledge of the slighter
parts of learning, but understood little to bottom : so he
triumphed in a rambling way of talking, but argued slightly
when he was held close to any point. He had a wonderful
faculty at opposing, and running things down ; but had not
the like force in building up. He had such an extravagant
vanity in setting himself out, that it was very disagreeable.
He pretended that Cromwell offered to make him king.
He was indeed of great use to him, in withstanding the
enthusiasts of that time. He was one of those who pressed
him most to accept of the kingship, because, as he said
afterwards, he was sure it would ruin him. His strength
lay in the knowledge of England, and of all the considerable
men in it. He understood well the size of their under-
standing and their tempers : and he knew how to apply
himself to them so dexterously, that, though by his
changing sides so often it was very visible how little he was
to be depended on, yet he was to the last much trusted by
all the discontented party 1. He had a no sort of virtue, for
he was both a lewd and corrupt man and had a no regard
either to truth or justice. | He was not ashamed to reckon MS. 50.
up the many turns he had made : and he valued himself
on the doing it at the properest season, and in the best
manner : and was not out of countenance in owning his

a struck out.

62, and infra 350. Lilly (Fairfax Corr. conversant with him, that he had

Civil Wars, ii. 47, 74^ and Gadbury a constant maxim, never to fall out

were its most noted professors. See with any body, let the provocation

Letters of Dorothy Osborne, 287, and be never so great, which he said he

Sidney's Diary, i. 253. 'The Life and had found great benefit by all his

Times of W.Lilly was published from life; and the reason he gave for it

the original MS. in 1715, and re- was, that he did not know how soon

printed in 1822. it might be necessary to have them

1 I was told by one that was very again for his best friends. D.

The History of the Reign

CHAP. I. unsteadiness and deceitfulness. This he did with so much
vanity, and so little discretion, that he lost many by it, and
his reputation was at last run so low that he could not have
held much longer, had not he died in good time, either for
his family or for his party. The former would have been
ruined if he had not saved it by betraying his party 1.

Another man very near of the same sort, who passed
through many great employments, was Annesley, advanced
to be earl of Anglesea ; who had much more knowledge,
and was very learned, chiefly in the law. He had a faculty
of speaking indefatigably upon every subject : but he spoke
ungracefully, and did not know that he was ill at raillery,
for he was always attempting it. He understood our
government well, and had examined far into the original
of our constitution. He was capable of great application,
and was a man of a grave deportment, but stuck at nothing,
and was ashamed of nothing. He was neither loved nor
trusted by any man or any side : and he seemed to have
no regard to the common decencies of justice and truth,
but sold every thing that was in his power : and sold him-
self so often, that at last the price fell so low that he
grew useless, because he was so well known that he was
universally despised2.

1 This account of Shaftesbury
omits, in especial, the facts that upon
commercial questions he was more
advanced than any statesman of his
time ; and that he was always in
favour of the liberal treatment of
protestant dissent. Where party or
personal feeling did not interfere
his views were humane, as when in
1663 he successfully opposed a bill
for the transportation of persons
convicted of petty larceny. For an
unrelieved censure on Shaftesbury's
character see Salmon, 696, and, for
his rehabilitation, Christie's Life, Mr.
Traill, in his monograph in Twelve
English Statesmen, has some in-
teresting remarks upon his position
as a parliamentary debater and as

the first strictly party leader.

2 There seems to be nothing to
justify this strongly adverse character
of Annesley, though it is clear from
the Essex Papers and many other
sources that he was not liked. See
Lord Lansdowne's Works, ii. 260.
He was President of the Council of
State immediately before the Re-
storation, was created Earl of Angle-
sea, 1661, and was in continual em-
ployment, though without power,
for twenty-two years ; and he died
in April, 1686. He had ' a smooth,
sharp, and keen pen,' wrote several
books, and is noted for his knowledge
of records and Church History, and
as the first nobleman who collected
a great library. His chief interest

of King Charles II. 175

Holies was a man of great courage, and of as great CHAP. I.
pride. He was counted for many years the head of the
presbyterian party. He was faithful and firm to his side,
and never changed through the whole course of his life.
He engaged in a particular opposition to Cromwell in the
time of the war. They hated one another equally. Holies
seemed to carry this too far : for he would not allow Crom-
well to have been either wise or brave ; but often applied
Solomon's observation to him, that the battle was not to the
strong, nor favour to the men of understanding, but that
time and chance happened to all men. He was well versed
in the records of parliament, and argued well, but too
vehemently ; for he could not bear contradiction. He had
the soul of an old stubborn Roman in him. He was
a faithful but a rough friend, and a severe but fair enemy.
He had a true sense of religion, and was a man of an
unblameable course of life, and of a sound judgment when
it was not biassed by passion. He was made a lord for
his merit in bringing about the restoration 1.

The earl of Manchester was made lord chamberlain 2 :
a man of a soft and obliging temper, of no great depth, but
universally beloved, being both a virtuous and a generous
man. The lord Robarts 3 was made lord privy seal, after-
lay in Irish affairs. Cf. infra 312 and Holies of May 26, 1664. Original
ff. 225, 429. His MS. Diary, written Letters and Negotiations (1724), i.
in an ostentatiously religious style is 141 ; his own letters to Fanshawe in
in the British Museum, Add. MSS. the same volume ; and Arlington's
18730, and there is a curious notice Letters (1701), ii. 16. He died Feb.
of him in the H. M. C. Rep. ii. 213. i6|$ after a life of incessant political

1 Cf. supra 50. Denzil Holies, activity.

created Baron Holies of Ifield, April 2 Clarendon, Cont. 44 : supra 154,

20, 1661, was ambassador to France infra 341, and f. 263. Manchester
from July, 1663, until May, 1666. was chosen Speaker of the House of
His uncompromising assertion of his Lords. He died in May, 1671.
dignity and his punctiliousness in 3 Robarts was appointed at the

matters of personal etiquette (cf. f. Restoration temporary Deputy for
207) were the cause of a good deal Monk, who was made Lord Lieu-
of friction, removed by the skill and tenant of Ireland ; and he succeeded
attractions of Charles's sister Hen- Ormond in that post in 1668, f. 266.
rietta (Mrs. Ady's Madame, 150-161), He was created Earl of Radnor, 1679 :
and by the counsels of Bennet. See was dismissed from the Presidentship
the latter's postscript to his letter to of Council, 1684 ; and died 1685.

i76

The History of the Reign

CHAP. I. wards lord lieutenant of Ireland, and at last lord president of
the council. He was a man of a morose and cynical temper,
just in his administration, but vicious under the appearances
of virtue : learned beyond any man of his quality, but
intractable, stiff and obstinate, proud and jealous.

These five, whom I have named last, had the chief hand
in engaging the nation in the design of the restoration.
They had great credit, chiefly with the presbyterian party,
and were men of much dexterity. So the thanks of that
great turn was owing them : and they were put in great
posts by the earl of Clarendon's means 1, by which he lost
most of the cavaliers, who could not bear the seeing such
men so highly advanced and so much trusted 2.

See if. 460, 477, 592. On his char-
acter, see Carte's Ormond, iv. 355.
Clarendon, Cont. 198, bears out
Burnet's account. He adds, 'he had
parts which in council and parlia-
ment were very troublesome ; for of
all men alive, who had so few friends,
he had the most followers.' See
also Ludlow, ii. 495 ; Pepys, March 2,
i66f . In the Harl. MSS. Brit. Mus.
2224, there are some MS. extracts
from the Journals of the House of
Lords, 1643-4, with original notes
by Robarts. See Sandford, Studies
and Illustrations of the Great Rebellion,
291, note.

1 ' In the maddest of our rejoicings
it will be very difficult to satisfy the
expectations of men for Majesty to
walk so evenly as not to give offence
to our formerly dissenting Grandees.'
Edward Butterfield to Sir Ralph
Verney, May 4, 1660, Verney MSS.
The conferring of high posts, in the
first instance, upon Presbyterians
was a necessity. But the inner cabal
was composed of staunch royalists,
Hyde, Colepepper, Ormond, and
Nicholas. Clarendon, Cont. 3. South-
ampton appears to have confined
himself strictly to the work of the
Treasury. He and Hertford were

the only genuine royalists included
in Monk?s suggested list of privy
councillors.

2 The Earl of Clarendon, upon the
restoration, made it his business to
depress everybody's merits to ad-
vance his own, and (the king having
gratified his vanity with high titles)
found it necessary, towards making
a fortune in proportion, to apply
himself to other means than what
the crown could afford (though he
had as much as the king could well
grant) ; and the people who had
suffered most in the civil war were
in no condition to purchase his
favour. He therefore undertook the
protection of those who had plun-
dered and sequestered the others,
which he very artfully contrived, by
making the king believe it was neces-
sary for his own ease and quiet to
make his enemies his friends ; upon
which he brought in most of those
who had been the main instruments
and promoters of the late troubles,
who were not wanting in their ac-
knowledgments in the manner he
expected, which produced the great
house in the Picadille, furnished
chiefly with cavaliers' goods, brought
thither for peace-offerings, which

of King Charles II.

177

At the king's first coming over, Monk and Mountague\ CHAP. I.
were the most considered They both had the garter *. [

the right owners durst not claim
when they were in his possession.
In m}' own remembrance Earl Paulett
was an humble petitioner to his sons,
for leave to take a copy of his grand-
father and grandmother's pictures
(whole lengths drawn by Vandyke),
that had been plundered from Hinton
St. George ; which was obtained
with great difficulty, because it was
thought that copies might lessen the
value of the originals. And who-
ever had a mind to see what great
families had been plundered during
the civil war, might find some remains
either at Clarendon house or at
Cornbury. D. The truth of the
latter part of this relation is con-
firmed by the Hon. G. A. Ellis in
his curious account of the division
and subsequent reunion of Lord
Clarendon's collection of portraits.
See Historical Inquiries respecting the
character of the Earl of Clarendon,
Lond. 1827, pp. 27-46. [The imputa-
tions against Clarendon in the first
part of Dartmouth's note will be
found fairly refuted by Lady Theresa
Lewis in the Introduction to her
work on The Clarendon Gallery,
1852.] Evelyn, who had suggested
the improvement of his collection
to the noble owner, accounts, in a
letter to Pepys, August 12, 1689,
for the extensiveness of it in the
following way : ' When Lord Claren-
don's design of making this collection
was known, everybody who had
any of the portraits, or could pur-
chase them at any price, strove to
make their court by presenting them.
By this means he got many excellent
pieces of Vandyke, and other origi-
nals by Lely and other the best of
our modern masters.' [See also his
letter to Clarendon, March 18, 1667.]
VOL. I.

As to his neglect of his fellow-
sufferers in the late times, the same
author indeed observes, that ' the
Lord Chancellor made few friends
during his grandeur among the royal
sufferers, but advanced the old
rebels.' August 27, 1667. He seems
to have in part renewed his former
connections before the civil war, from
private regard as well as public
policy, rather than from censurable
motives, although it is true that they
have been imputed to him. It is a
curious circumstance, that, when he
was created an earl, the ceremony is
thus noticed by Evelyn : ' Edward
lord Hide, lord chancellor, earle of
Clarendon, supported by ye carles
of Northumberland and Sussex ; ye
earle of Bedford carried the cap and
coronet, the earle of Warwick the
sword, the earle of Newport the
mantle.' April 22, 1661. One would
have supposed, if we leave out the
last-mentioned nobleman, that this
had been the court not of King
Charles but of King Pym. R. The
disgust of the Cavaliers is well
expressed in the following letter
from one of them ; H. M. C. Rep.
v. 105. ' As yet men of my loyalty
have only our mouths filled with
laughter and our hearts [with heavi-
ness]. His Majesty, having not
hitherto found enough in honours
and offices to satisfy his enemies,
expects his loyal friends will stay
till he be more able.' This view
found frequent expression in Parlia-
ment. See especially the Petition of
the distressed Royalists, Part. Hist. iv.
234, and Somers Tracts, vii. 516 557;
Pepys, March 7, i66± ; Dec. 15, 1665.
1 This favour was bestowed at
Canterbury with every circumstance
that could render their adhesion

N

178

The History of the Reign

CHAP. I. The one was made duke of Albemarle, and the other earl
of Sandwich, and they had noble estates given them.
Monk was ravenous, as well as his wife, who was a mean
and contemptible creature. They both asked and sold all
that was within their reach, nothing being denied them for
some time ; till he became so useless, that little personal
regard could be paid him. But the king maintained still
the appearances of it : for the appearance of the service he
did him was such, that the king thought it fit to treat him
with great distinction, even after he saw into him, and
despised him l. He took care to raise his kinsman Gren-
ville, who was made earl of Bath, and groom of the stole,
a meana minded man, who thought of nothing but of
getting and spending money 2 ; only in spending he had

tt arid base struck out.

secure, since the one was master of
the army, the other of the navy.
H. M. C. Rep. v. 144, 154. Monk
was made Master of the Horse,
and received the garter from the
king himself, ' for his princely blood
and signal services.' Cf. Rugge's
Diurnal. Thiswas an admission of his
claim that he was descended from the
Plantagenets, Richard Beauchamp,
Earl of Warwick, and Arthur Plan-
tagenet, natural son of Edward IV,
his title being derived from a place
in Normandy formerly belonging to
them. ' Margaretam enim filiam
primogenitam et unam cohaeredum
inclitissimi proceris Richardi Beau-
champe, Warwici et Albemarliae
comitis, post in victissimumBedfordiae
ducem regentis Franciae et ducatus
Normanniae locum tenentis.Johannes
Talbot, bellicosissimus ille Salopiae
comes uxorem ducit.' And Arthur
Plantagenet, an illegitimate son of
Edward IV, married a descendant
of this marriage. Peck's Desid. Cur.
Monk was also appointed Lord
Lieutenant of Ireland, resigning the
post to Ormond in Nov. 1661. On

July 13 he entered the House of
Peers as Baron Monk of Potheridge,
Beauchamp and H eyes, Earl Torring-
ton, and Duke of Albemarle, with a
pension of £7,000 a year and the
estate of New Hall in Essex. He
had, in Colepepper's words in 1659,
found 'all his ends (those of honour,
power, profit and safety), with the
king better than in any other way
he can take.' Oar. St. P. iii. 413.
For his wife, Anne, daughter of John
Clarges, a farrier in the Savoy,
her breeding and character, and her
previous relations with other men,
see Jesse, Memoirs of the Court of
England, iii. 431-3. See also
Aubrey's Lives (,1813), ii. part 2, 451.

1 See a character of the Duke of
Albemarle [and the high opinion
of his usefulness and powers which
prevailed] in Lord Lansdowne's
Works, ii. 263. Cole. In 1668 Albe-
marle still enjoyed uninterrupted
consideration. See for a striking
instance, Ranke, iii. 490.

2 See this account of Sir John
Grenville put in a true light, Lans-
downe, ii. 257. Cole. BevillHiggons,

of King Charles II. 179

a peculiar talent of doing it with so ill a grace and so bad CHAP. I.
a conduct, that it was long before those who saw how
much he got. and how little he spent visibly, would believe
he was so poor as he was found to be at his death : which
was a thought to bea the occasion of his son's shooting
himself in the head a few days after his death, finding the
disorder of his affairs ; for both father and son were buried
together. The duke of Albemarle raised two other persons.
One was Clarges, his wife's brother, who was an honest 99
but haughty man1. He became afterwards a very con-
siderable parliament man, and valued himself on his op-
posing the court, and on his frugality in managing the
public money ; for he had Cromwell's economy ever | in his MS. 51.
mouth, and was always for reducing the expense of war to
the modesty and parsimony of those times. Many thought
he carried this too far : but it made him very popular.
After lie was become very rich by the public money, he
seemed to take care that nobody else should grow so rich
as he was in that way. Another person raised by the duke
of Albemarle was Morrice 2, who was b [the person that had
chiefly prevailed with Monk to declare for the king ; upon
that he was made secretary of state] b. He was very
learned, but full of pedantry and affectation. He had no

a interlined afterwards. b These bracketed words are written by

another hand on the opposite page, or, if written by Burnet, written when
his hand was very feeble.

129, states that Grenville had a war- bye-election in 1666; Commissary

rant for his Earldom and a pension of General of Musters ; died 1695.

^3,000 a year signed at Brussels a Lord Lansdowne, ii. 259, asserts

some months before Charles and that Morrice was appointed without

Monk met, though not actually Monk's knowledge: He retained the

created earl until the coronation. Secretaryship until 1668. There is

He was one of the gentlemen of the a curious account in the VerneyMSS.

bed-chamber before the Restoration, of a dispute between Morrice and

though never in favour with Claren- the Bishop of Lincoln, over the re-

don ; and, with Mordaunt, he brought lative antiquity of Oxford and Cam-

the king's Declaration and Letters bridge, in which the Secretary and

from Breda. He died in 1701. the Prelate very nearly came to

1 Knighted at Breda; member blows. Dr. Denton to Sir R.Verney,

for Westminster in the Convention Nov. 24, 1665. Morrice died in

Parliament, and for Southwark at a 1676.

N 2

i8o

The History of the Reign

CHAP. I. true judgment about foreign affairs ; and Albemarle's judg-
ment of them may be measured by what he said when he
found the king grew weary of Morrice, but that in regard
to him had no mind to turn him out : upon which the
duke of Albemarle replied, he did not know what was
necessary for a good secretary of state in which he was
defective, for he could speak French and write short hand l.
Nicholas was the other secretary, who had been em-
ployed by king Charles the first during the war, and had
served him faithfully, but had no understanding in foreign
affairs. He was a man of virtue, but could not fall in to
the king's temper, or become acceptable to him 2. So, not
long after the restoration, Bennet, advanced afterwards to
be earl of Arlington, was by the interest of the popish
1662. party made secretary of state, and was admitted into so
particular a confidence that he began to raise a party in
opposition to the earl of Clarendon. He was a proud and
insolent man. His parts were solid, but not quick. He
had the art of observing the king's temper, and managing
it beyond all the men of that time. He was believed
a papist ; he had once professed it, and when he died he
again reconciled himself to that church. Yet in the whole
course of his ministry he seemed to have made it a maxim,
that the king ought to shew no favour to popery, but that
all his affairs would be spoiled if ever he turned that way ;
which made the papists become his mortal enemies, and
accuse him as an apostate and the betrayer of their
interests. He was a man of great vanity, and lived at

1 There appears to be no other
evidence as to Morrice's power of
writing shorthand. It was, however,
the great accomplishment of William
Clarke, Monk's old secretary, of
whom Monk was perhaps thinking.

2 Nicholas was secretary during
the exile, and had to struggle against
the pronounced dislike of the queen-
mother, both before and after the
Restoration. Pepys, Nov. 16, 1667.
' Secretary Nicholas,' says Claren-

don, ' was a very honest and in-
dustrious man, and always versed in
business.' See the Nicholas Papers
(Camd. Soc.), ed. Warner. Unfor-
tunately they are at present printed
up to 1655 only. He ceased to be
Secretary in October, 1662, nomi-
nally on account of his age, Cal. St.
P. Dom. 1661-2, 525, but probably
through the influence of the queen-
mother and Lady Castlemaine. He
died in 1669.

of King Charles II.

181

a vast expense, without taking any care of paying the CHAP. I.
debts which he contracted to support that1. His chief
friend was Charles Berkeley, made earl of Falmouth, who.
without any visible merit 2, unless it was the managing the
king's amours, was the most absolute of all the king's
favourites : and, which was peculiar to himself, he was as
much in the duke of York's favour as in the king's 3. He
was generous in his expense : and it was thought if he had
outlived the lewdness of that time, and come to a more

1 He was esteemed so good a
courtier, that it was said he died
a Roman Catholic to make his court
to King James. But whatever his
religion might be, he always pro-
fessed himself of the whig party, as
many papists had done before him :
and particularly the famous Lambert
declared a little before his death
[1683], he had always been of the
church of Rome. D. As early as
1654, Bennet was the chosen con-
fidant of Charles, Clar. St. P., July
8, 1654 ; and in 1656-7 was his envoy
at Madrid ; but he seems never to
have been in favour with James ; id.
Jan. 28, 1657. He was made Secre-
tary in Oct 1662. During 1663 he
was created a Baron, and Earl of
Arlington in 1672, when he received
the Garter also. His influence in
foreign affairs was largely due (as
in later times with Carteret) to the
fact that he was the only one of the
king's ministers, except Morrice
(supra 180), who could speak foreign
languages with ease. See Evelyn,
Sept. 10, 1668 ; and Jusserand, A
French Ambassador at the Court of
Charles II, 52. He had been educated
for the Church and had acquired
a good knowledge of the classics.
The evidence as to his religion is
collected in the Diet. Nat. Biog. In
the Cal. Clar. St. P. iii. 295, Peter
Talbot speaks of him as a ' creature
of Lord Bristol/ and as an enemy of

the Catholics, meaning obviously his
own section of them. But see Carte's
Oimond, iv. 109, which is contra-
dictory to this. His marriage to a
Dutch lady. Isabella van Beverweert,
daughter of Louis of Nassau, and
sister of Ossory's wife, was probably
of service to him in dealing with
the States. Of his ability as a
diplomatist, Mignet's account of the
negotiations leading to the Treaty
of Dover, Negotiations relatives, &c.,
is sufficient evidence. Sheffield, how-
ever, though his account of Bennet
is on the whole favourable, calls him,
'rather a subtle courtier than an able
statesman '; and Carte says he was
regarded as a ' fourbe ' in politics.

2 See Clarendon, Cont. 62, for
part of this man's merit. O. Pepys
observes, that no man, except the
king, wished him alive again, after
being killed in the engagement with
the Dutch [at Solebay, June 3], 1665.
Pepys, June 9, 1665. But it appears,
that the earl's friend, Sir William
Coventry, held him in great esteem,
setting aside his subserviency to the
king in his pleasures. Id. August 30,
1668. R. See Clarendon's characters
of Digby, Bennet, and Berkeley in
the Appendix to the Clarendon Statt
Papers, li-lxxxiv.

3 Lauderdale also enjoyed the full
favour of both Charles and James.
It was not until the very close of his
life that he lost that of the latter.

182

The History of the Reign

CHAP. I. sedate course of life, he would have put the king on great
and noble designs. This I should have thought more
likely, if I had not had it from the duke, who had so wrong
a taste a, that there was reason to suspect his judgment
both of men and things. Bennet and he had the manage-
ment of the mistress, and all the earl of Clarendon's enemies
came about them : the chief of whom were the duke of
Buckingham and the earl of Bristol.

The first of these was a man of a noble presence. He
had a great liveliness of wit, and a peculiar faculty of
turning all things into ridicule, with bold figures and
natural descriptions. He had no sort of literature : only
he was drawn into chemistry, and for some years he
thought he was very near the finding the philosopher's
stone ; which had the fate that attends on all such men as
he was, when they are drawn in, to lay out for it. He
had no principles either of religion, virtue, or friendship.
Pleasure, frolic, and extravagant diversions, was all that
he laid to heart. He was true to nothing : for he was not
true to himself 1. He had no steadiness nor conduct: he
could keep no secret, nor execute any design without
spoiling it. He could never fix his thoughts, nor govern
his estate, though then the greatest in England. He was
bred about the king, and for many years he had a great
ascendant over him : but he spake of him to all persons
with that contempt that at last he drew a lasting disgrace
upon himself; and he also ruined both body and mind,
fortune and reputation equally. The madness of vice
appeared in his person in very eminent instances ; since
at last he became contemptible and poor, sickly, and sunk
in his parts, as well as in all other respects, so that his
conversation was as much avoided as ever it had been
courted. He found the king, when he came from his
travels in the year 45, newly come to Paris, sent over by

a of these things struck out.

1 No consequence. S.

of King Charles II. 183

his father when his affairs declined : and finding him enough CHAP. I
inclined to receive ill impressions, he, who was then got into
all the impieties and vices of the age, set himself to corrupt
the king, in which he was too successful, being seconded in
that wicked design by the lord Percy. And to complete the
matter, Hobbes was brought to him \ under the pretence
of instructing him in mathematics : and he laid before him
his schemes, both with relation to religion and politics,
which made deep and lasting impressions on the king's
mind. So that the main blame of the king's ill principles
and bad morals was owing to the duke of Buckingham 2.

The earl of Bristol wras a man of courage and learning,
of a bold temper and a lively wit, but of no judgment nor
steadiness. He was | in the queen's interests during the MS. 52.
war at Oxford, and he studied to drive things past the 101
possibility of a treaty or any reconciliation ; fancying that
nothing would make the military men so sure to the king
as his being sure to them, and giving them hopes of sharing
the confiscated estates among them ; whereas, he thought,
all discourses of treaty made them feeble and fearful.
When he went beyond sea he turned papist ; but it was
after a way of his own : for he loved to magnify the dif-
ference between the church and the court of Rome :5. He
was esteemed a very good speaker : but he was too copious
and too florid. He was set at the head of the popish party,
and was a violent enemy of the earl of Clarendon.

1 Cf. f. 187. writes thus : ' Burnet has hewn it

2 Butler says in his Characters, out with his rough chisel ; Count
[Genuine Remains (1756), ii. 72,] Hamilton touched it with that slight
' The duke of Bucks is one that has delicacy which finishes while it
studied the whole body of vice.' And seems but to sketch ; Dryden caught
says also of this abominable man, the living likeness ; Pope completed
' that continual wine, women, and the historical resemblance.' Royal
music, had debauched his under- and Noble Authors.

standing.' O. See supra go, note, and 3 ' ' I am a catholic of the church of

Carte's Ormond, iv. 291 ; and com- Rome, not of the court of Rome,'

pare the Essex Papers (Camd. Soc.), are the words of the Earl of Bristol

i. 271, for the King's 'Bucking- in a speech addressed by him to the

ham hours.' Upon the character House of Commons, July i, 1663.

sketches of Buckingham, Walpole Parl. Hist. iv. 274.

184

The History of the Reign

March
1660.

CHAP. I. Having now said as much as seems necessary to describe
the state of the court and ministry at the restoration, I will
next give an account of the chief of the Scots, and of the
parties that were formed among them l. The earl of
Lauderdale, afterwards made duke, had been for many
years a zealous covenanter : but in the year '47 he turned
to the king's interests, and had continued a prisoner from
Worcester fight, where he was taken. He was kept for
some years in the Tower of London, in Portland castle,
and in other prisons, till he was set at liberty by those who
called home the king 2. So he went over to Holland.
And since he continued so long, and, contrary to all men's
opinion, in so high a degree of favour and confidence, it
may be expected that I should be a little copious in setting
out his character; for I knew him very particularly. He
made a very ill appearance : he was very big : his hair was
red, hanging oddly about him : his tongue was too big for
his mouth, which made him bedew all that he talked to : and
his whole manner was rough and boisterous, and very unfit
for a court. He was very learned, not only in Latin, in
which he was a master, but in Greek and Hebrew. He
had read a great deal in divinity, and almost all the
historians ancient and modern : so that he had great
materials. He had with these an extraordinary memory,
and a copious but unpolished expression. He was a man,
as the duke of Buckingham called him to me, of a blun-
dering understanding, not always clear, but often clouded,
as his looks were always. He was haughty beyond ex-
pression ; abject to those he saw he must stoop to, but
imperious and insolent and brutal to all others. He had
a violence of passion that carried him often to fits like
madness, in which he had no temper. If he took a thing

1 It ought to be specially noted
here that upon the course of affairs
in Scotland, and the characters of the
chief actors in that country through-
out this reign, — that is upon what
he knew most about,— Burnet is, in

spite of his strong political and per-
sonal predilections, conspicuously
accurate and fair.

2 He was released from Windsor
Castle in March, i6||.

of King Charles II. 185

wrong, it was a vain thing to study to convince him : that CHAP. I.
would rather provoke him to swear he would never be of
another mind : he was to be let alone, and then perhaps
he would have forgot what he had said, and come about
of his own accord. He was the coldest friend and the
violentest enemy I ever knew : I felt it too much not to
know it. He at first seemed to despise wealth : but he 102
delivered himself up afterwards to luxury and sensuality :
and by that means he ran into a vast expense, and stuck
at nothing that was necessary to support that. In his long
imprisonment he had great impressions of religion on his
mind : but he wore these out so entirely that scarce any
trace of them was left. His great experience in affairs,
his ready compliance with every thing that he thought
would please the king, and his bold offering at the most
desperate counsels, gained him such an interest in the king,
that no attempt against him, nor complaint of him, could
ever shake it, till a decay of strength and understanding
forced him to let go his hold. He was in his principles
much against popery and arbitrary government : and yet,
by a fatal train of passions and interests, he made way for
the former, and had almost established the latter. And,
whereas some by a smooth deportment make the first
beginnings of tyranny less unacceptable and discernable,
he, by the fury of his behaviour, heightened the severity
of his ministry, which was liker the cruelty of an inquisition
than the legality of justice, not to say mercy. With all
this he was at first a presbyterian, and retained his aversion
to king Charles I. and his party to his death x.

1 See the Quarterly Review for Lauderdale was an 'engager' in

April, 1884, ' Lauderdale and the Re- 1648, and in the interests of Charles

storation.' The Lauderdale Papers, in 1650-1, but was, up to the Restora-

from which the account of his char- tion, nominally a Presbyterian, and,

acter is derived, fully bear out the as may be seen from Baillie passim,

statements in the text, which, how- in the highest repute among good

ever, omit the broad and pungent Presbyterians. The tyranny of Pres-

wit, and the brutal bonhomie which byterianism made such a profession

probably went as far as anything absolutely necessary for any of the

else in securing Charles's favour. nobility who wished to keep in the

i86

The History of the Reign

CHAP. i. The earl of Crawford had been his fellow prisoner for
ten years, and that was a good title for maintaining him in
the post he had before, of being lord treasurer 1. He was
a sincere but weak man, passionate and indiscreet, and
continued still a zealous presbyterian. The earl, after-
wards duke, of Rothes 2. had married his daughter, and had
the merit of a long imprisonment likewise to recommend
him: he had a ready dexterity in the management of
affairs, with a soft and insinuating address : he had a quick
apprehension with a clear judgment : he had no advantage
of education, no sort of literature, nor had he travelled
abroad : all in him was mere nature, but it [was] nature
very much depraved ; for he seemed to have freed himself
from all the impressions of virtue or religion, of honour or
good nature. He delivered himself, without either restraint
or decency, to all the pleasures of wine and women. He
had but one maxim, to which he adhered firmly, that he
was to do every thing, and deny himself in nothing, that
might maintain his greatness, or gratify his appetites. He
was unhappily made for drunkenness ; for as he drank all
his friends dead, and was able to subdue two or three sets

front of political life. As to his
reputation among his friends for real
religion, Balcarres, himself a man of
genuine piety, expresses at the time
of Lauderdale's imprisonment his
assurance that he 'will go to the
saints.' The proverb 'Jeune hermite,
vieux diable,' applies to him with
especial truth. See Baxter's letter
of sorrowful reproof, Lauderdale
Papers, iii. 235. Cf. Clarendon's ac-
count, COM/. 96, and Malet Papers,
iii. f. i, where it is entitled l Mr.
Richard Baxter's Canting Letter.'
For an account of his high intellectual
cultivation, his interest in literature,
and the splendour of his house at
Ham after his marriage to Lady
Dysart,see Roger North's Lives of the
Norths, i. 232, ed. 1890, and Evelyn,

August 27, 1678. Pepys, July 28,
1666, records Lauderdale's dislike of
music, expressed in his usual forcible
style. Hostile critics of Burnet
point with justice to what Cole calls
his 'fawning and abject dedication'
to Lauderdale of his Vindication of
the Authority of the Church and State
of Scotland in 1673, which, after the
quarrel between them, he took great
pains to suppress. It may be seen
in the British Museum copy of the
work, in Salmon's Examination, 466,
and in Rose's Observations upon
Fox's James II, App. vi.

1 He gave up this post in June,
1663, and was succeeded by Rothes.
Mackenzie, Memoirs, 113.

2 John, sixth Earl, first Duke, of
Rothes.

of King Charles II. 187

of drunkards one after another, so it scarce ever appeared CHAP. i.
that he was disordered ; and after the greatest excesses, an
hour or two of sleep carried them off so entirely that no
sign of them remained : he would go about business with-
out any uneasiness, or discovering any heat either in body
or mind. This had a terrible conclusion ; | for after he had MS. 53.
killed all his friends, he fell at last under such a weakness
of stomach, that he had perpetual cholics, when he was not
hot within and full of strong liquor, of which he was
presently seized ; so that he was always either sick or
drunk.

The earl of Tweeddale was another of Lauderdale's
friends1. He was early engaged in business, and continued
in it to a great age : he understood all the interests and
concerns of Scotland well : he had a great stock of
knowledge, with a mild and obliging temper. He was of
a blameless, or rather an exemplary, life in all respects.
He had loose thoughts both of civil and ecclesiastical
government ; and seemed to think that what form soever
was uppermost was to be complied with. He had been
in Cromwell's parliaments, and had abjured the royal
family, which lay heavy on him. But the disputes about
the guardianship of the duchess of Monmouth and her
elder sister, to which he pretended in the right of his wife,
who was their father's sister, against their mother, who 103
was Rothes's sister, drew him into that compliance, that
brought a great cloud upon him : though he was in all
other respects the ablest and worthiest man of the nobility :
only he was too cautious and fearful.

A son of the marquis of Douglas, made earl of Selkirk,
had married the heiress of the family of Hamilton, who by
her father's patent was duchess of Hamilton 2 : and when

1 His son, Lord Yester, married hard drinker, and both received
Lauderdale's daughter and heiress personal rebukes from Charles II on
Anne. Tweeddale was a man of that ground. Landerdale Papers, ii.
good sense, and always an advocate 81, 90. The lucrative Commissioner-
of tolerance. Cf. ff. 239-246. ship of Taxes and Fines afforded him

2 Hamilton, like Rothes, was a the funds for raising the family from

i88

The History of the Reign

CHAP. I. the heiress to a title in Scotland marries one not equal to
her in rank, it is ordinary, at her desire, to give her hus-
band the title for life : so he was made duke Hamilton.
He then passed for a soft man, who minded nothing but
the recovery of that family from the great debts under
which it was sinking, till it was raised up again by his
great managing. After he had compassed that, he became
a more considerable man. He wanted all sorts of polishing :
he was rough and sullen, but candid and sincere. His
temper was boisterous, neither fit to submit nor to govern.
He was mutinous when out of power, and imperious in it.
He wrote well, but spoke ill : for his judgment when calm
was better than his imagination. He made himself a great
master in the knowledge of the laws, of the history, and of
the families of Scotland, and seemed always to have a great
regard to justice and the good of his country : but a narrow
and selfish temper brought such an habitual meanness on
him, that he was not capable of designing or undertaking
great things.

Another man of that side that made a good figure at
that time was Bruce, afterwards earl of Kincardine1, who

its load of debt, and also acquired
for him the nickname of ' The Great
Publican.' He led the first organized
opposition to Lauderdale in 1673,
Lauderdale Papers, ii. 241 et seq.,
and was the head of the ' Party ' or
'Faction' in 1676 and onwards. Both
he and the duchess were in favour
of toleration, he because his rent-
roll suffered by the persecution of
his tenants, she from sympathy
with them.

1 Alexander Bruce was the second
son of Sir George Bruce of Clack-
mannan, whose father, also Sir
George, possessed coal mines at
Culross, stone quarries, salt mines,
&c., which founded the fortunes of
the family. His elder brother Edward
was the first earl, the peerage being

created at Carisbrooke in 1647, and
Alexander succeeded him in 1661.
See his brilliant correspondence after
1660 with Lauderdale and Robert
Moray, in the Lauderdale Papers, ii.
and iii. For his earlier letters to
Moray, while in exile (still more in-
teresting, and displaying the most
varied knowledge), see the Scottish
Review, Jan. 1885. There was
scarcely a subject admitting of prac
tical experiment in which he was
not actually interested, and there is
ample evidence that his absorption
in these pursuits, as Burnet says,
hindered him from becoming a great
political figure. Moray to Kincardine,
Aug. 22, 1668. After Robert Moray
himself he was certainly the most
interesting Scotchman of his time.

of King Charles II. 189

had married a daughter of Mr. Somelsdyck in Holland, CHAP. I.
and by that means he had got acquaintance with our
princes beyond sea, and had supplied them liberally in
their necessities. He was both the wisest and the worthiest
man that belonged to his country, and fit for governing
any affairs but his own ; which he by a wrong turn, by his
love of the public, neglected to his ruin ; for they con-
sisting much in works, coals, salt, and mines, required
much care ; and he was very capable of it, having gone far
in mathematics, and being a great master at all mechanics.
His thoughts went slow, and his words came much slower:
but a deep judgment appeared in every thing he said or
did. He had a noble zeal for justice, in which even friend-
ship could never bias him, He had solid principles of
religion and virtue, which shewed themselves with great
lustre on all occasions. He was a faithful friend, and
a merciful enemy. I may be perhaps inclined to carry his
character too far; for he was the first man that entered
into friendship with me. We continued for seventeen
years in so entire a friendship, that there was never either 104
reserve or mistake between us all the while till his death ;
and it was from him that I understood the whole secret of
affairs ; for he was trusted with every thing. He had
a wonderful love to the king ; and would never believe me
when I warned him what he might look for, if he did not
go along with an abject compliance in every thing. He
found it true in conclusion ; and the love he bore the king

Mackenzie's account of him in his copacy into Scotland, and afterwards

Memoirs fully confirms that of Bur- consistently did his best for tolera-

net. He was married in 1659 to tion. He was, like Moray (although,

Veronica, daughter of Van Arson before the Restoration, by ' mon-

Van Sommelsdyck, Lord of Sommels- archy ' he understood ' tyranny ' ;

dyck and Spycke in Holland, with a Moray to Kincardine, Transcripts of

fortune of 80,000 guilders; at the Correspondence}, a persona grata with

Restoration he was made a Privy Charles, and supported Lauderdale

Councillor, and, in 1667, Extra- as long as he conscientiously could,

ordinary Lord of Session and Com- until 1676; suffering in his turn from

missioner of the Treasury. He Lauderdale's ingratitude. He died

opposed the introduction of Epis- July 9, 1680.

I90

The History of the Reign

CHAP. I. made his disgrace sink deeper in him than became a such a
a philosopher or so good a Christian as he was.

I now turn to another set of men, of whom the earls of
Middleton and Glencairn were the chief1; and they were
followed by the rest b of the cavalier party, who were now
very fierce and full of courage over their cups, though they
had been very discreet managers of it in the field, and in
time of action ; but now every one of them vaunted that
he had killed his thousands, and all were full of merit, and
as full of high pretensions, far beyond what all the wealth
and revenue of Scotland could answer. The subtilest of
all lord Middleton's friends was sir Archibald Primrose2,
a man of long and great practice in affairs ; for he and his
father had served the crown c successively c an hundred

MS. 54. years | all but one, when he was turned out of employment.
He was a dexterous man in business : he had always
expedients ready at every difficulty. He had an art of
speaking to every man according to their sense of things,
and so drew out their secrets, while he concealed his own :
for words went for nothing with him. He said every thing
that was necessary to persuade those he spoke to, that he
was of their mind, and did it in so genuine a way that
he seemed to speak his heart. He was always for soft
counsels and slow methods : and thought that the chief
thing that a great man ought to do was to raise his family
and his kindred, who would naturally stick to him ; for he
had seen so much of the world, that he did not depend
much on friends, and so took no care of making any. He
always advised the earl of Middleton to go on slowly in
the king's business, but to do his own effectually, before

ft interlined. b herd struck out and rest substituted.

c interlined by a feeble hand.

1 See supra 104, 106, 107 ; infra
199, &c. Glencairn was brother-in-
law to Tweeddale.

2 Primrose, who was made Clerk-
Register, with the title of Lord

Carrington, became the adherent
of Lauderdale when it was clear that
his was the stronger side. Lauder-
dale Papers, i. 180. He died in
1679.

of King Charles II. 191

the king should see that he had no farther occasion for him. CHAP, i,
That earl had another friend who had more credit with
him, though Primrose was more necessary for managing
a parliament : he was sir John Fletcher, made the king's
advocate or attorney-general: for Nicolson1 was dead.
Fletcher was a man of a generous temper, who despised
wealth, except as it was necessary to support a vast
expense ; he was a bold and fierce man, who hated all mild
proceedings, and could scarce speak with decency or
patience to those of the other side, so that he was looked
on by all that had been faulty in the late times, as an 105
inquisitor-general 2. On the other hand, Primrose took
money a liberally,* and was the intercessor for all who made
such effectual applications to him.

CHAPTER II.

THE SETTLEMENT OF SCOTLAND AND THE
' DRUNKEN ' ADMINISTRATION.

THE first thing that was to be thought on with relation
to Scottish affairs, was the manner in which offenders in
the late times were to be treated : for all were at mercy.
In the letter the king writ from Breda to the parliament of
England, he had promised a full indemnity for all that was
past, excepting only those who had been concerned in his
father's death : to which the earl of Clarendon persuaded

a substituted for with both hands struck out.

1 See supra 99. suspected during that time of cor-

2 Middleton appears to have of- responding with Middleton. Mac-
fended the Scotch Bar by the ap- kenzie, Memoirs, 9 ; Kirkton, History
pointment of his kinsman Fletcher, of the Church of Scotland, 66. In the
who succeeded Sir Thomas Hope reign of terror which now followed,
(supra 34\ There were many mem- his office was one which enabled him
bers of the bar senior in the pro- to amass vast sums from bribery,
fession and of equal reputation who Omond's Lord Advocates of Scotland,
were passed over. Fletcher had i. 172. His influence ceased with
been a leading criminal counsel that of Middleton, and he resigned,
under the Commonwealth, and was Sept. 14, 1664.

192

The History of the Reign

CHAP. II. the king to adhere in a most sacred manner, since the
breaking of faith in such a point was that which must for
ever destroy confidence, and the observing all such promises
seemed to be a fundamental maxim in government, which
was to be maintained in such a manner, that not so much
as a stretch was to be made in it. But there was no
promise made for Scotland : so all the cavaliers, as they
were full of revenge, hoped to have the estates of those who
had been chiefly concerned in the late wars divided among
them. The earl of Lauderdale told the king, on the other
hand, that the Scottish nation had turned eminently, though
unfortunately, to serve his father in the year 48, that they
had brought himself among them, and had lost two armies
in his service, and had been under nine years' oppression
on that account ; that they had encouraged and assisted
Monk in all he did : they might be therefore highly dis-
gusted, if they should not have the same measure of grace
and pardon that he was to give England 1. Besides, the
l65i- king, while he was in Scotland, had, in the parliament at
Stirling 2, passed a very full act of indemnity, though in the
terms and with the title of an act of approbation. It is
true, the records of that parliament were not extant, but
lost in the confusion that followed upon the reduction of
that kingdom : yet the thing was so recent in every man's
memory, that it might have a very ill effect if the king
should proceed without a regard to it. There was indeed
another very severe act made at that parliament against
all that should treat with or submit to Cromwell, or comply
in any sort with him : but in that, he said, a difference
ought to be made between those who during the struggle
had deserted the service, and gone over to the enemy, of
which number it might be fit to make some examples, and
the rest of the kingdom, who upon the general 'reduction

1 Lauderdale's object was to secure
his power in the first instance upon
the sympathy of his countrymen.
He appears to have expressed his

displeasure at the burning of the
Covenant by the hangman. Cal. St.
P. Dom. 1 660- 1, 260.
2 See supra 96.

of King Charles II. 193

had been forced to capitulate : it would seem hard to CHAP. II.
punish any for submitting to a superior force, when they
were in no condition to resist it. This seemed reasonable :
and the earl of Clarendon acquiesced in it ; but the earl
of Middleton and his party complained of it, and desired
that the marquis of Argyll, whom they charged with an ioe
accession to the king's murder, and some few of those who
had joined in the remonstrance while the king was in
Scotland, might be proceeded against. The marquis of
Argyll's craft made them afraid of him, and his estate
made them desire to divide it among them. His son, the
lord Lorn, was come up to court, and was well received by
the king : for he had adhered so firmly to the king's
interests, that he would never enter into any engagements
with the usurpers x: and upon every new occasion of jealousy
he was | clapt up. In one of his imprisonments he had MS. 55.
a terrible accident from a cannon bullet2, which the soldiers
were throwing to exercise their strength ; it by a recoil
struck him in the head, and made such a fracture in his
skull, that the operation of the trepan, and the cure, was
counted one of the greatest performances of surgery in that
time. The difference between his father and him went on
to a total breach 3 ; so that his father was set upon the
disinheriting him of all that was still left in his power.
Upon the restoration the marquis of Argyll went up to the
Highlands for some time, till he advised with his friends
what to do ; who were divided in opinion. He writ by his
son to the king, asking leave to come and wait on him.
The king gave an answer that seemed to encourage it, but
did not bind him to any thing. I have forgot the words :
there was an equivocating in them that did not become
a prince : but his son told me, he wrote them very par-
ticularly to his father, without any advice of his own.

1 In 1655 he entered into a bond of of Correspondence. See also Baillie,
£5.000 with Monk. Thurloe, iv. 162. iii. 367.

2 In 1658. The general of the castle 3 See Firth's Scotland and the
was ' playing at bulletts ' with him. Commonwealth, xxxix, 120, and
Moray to Alex. Bruce. Transcripts especially 166.

VOL. I. O

i94

The History of the Reign

July i,
1660.

CHAP. II. Upon that the marquis of Argyll came up so secretly, that
he was within Whitehall, before his enemies knew any thing
of his journey1. He sent his son to the king, to beg ad-
mittance.* But instead of that, he was sent to the Tower,
and orders were sent down for clapping up three of the
chief remonstrators. Of these Warriston was one : but he
had notice sent him before the messenger came : so he
made his escape, and went beyond sea, first to Hamburg2.
He had been long courted by Cromwell, and had stood at
a distance from him for seven years : but in the last year
of his government he had gone into his counsels, and was
summoned as one of his peers to the other house, as it was
called. He was after that put into the council of state
after Richard was put out : and then in another court set
up by Lambert and the army, called the committee of
safety. So there was a great deal against him. Swinton 3,
one of Cromwell's lords, was also sent down a prisoner to
Scotland. And thus it was resolved to make a few ex-
amples in the parliament that was to be called as soon as
107 the king could be got to prepare matters for it. It was
resolved on to restore the king's authority to the same
state it was in before the wars, and to raise such a force
as might be necessary to secure the quiet of that kingdom
for the future.

It was a harder point, what to do with the citadels that
were built by Cromwell, and with the English garrisons
that were kept in them. Many said, it was necessary to
keep that kingdom in that subdued state at least till all
things were settled, and that there were no more danger
from thence. The earl of Clarendon was of this mind.
But the earl of Lauderdale laid before the king, that the
conquest Cromwell had made of Scotland was for their

1 See Argyll's letter to Clarendon
(undated) asking for the king's
clemency, in Lister, Life of Clarendon,
iii. 129.

2 For the kidnapping and death of
Warriston, see infra 354 and 364.

3 Swinton and Sir William Lock-
hart were the only two Scotchmen
who were members of the Council
which assisted Monk in the govern-
ment of Scotland after July, 1655.
Cal. St. P. Dom. 1655, 108, 152, 255.

of King Charles II. 195

adhering to him : he might then judge what they would CHAP. 11.
think, who had suffered so much and so long on his account,
if the same thraldom should be now kept up by his means.
It would create an universal disgust 1. He told the king,
that the time might come in which he would wish rather
to have Scotch garrisons in England. It would become
a national quarrel, and lose the affections of the country to
such a degree, that perhaps they might join with the
garrisons, if any disjointing happened in England against
him : whereas, without any such badge of slavery, Scotland
might be so managed that they might be made entirely
his. The earl of Middleton and his party durst not appear
for so unpopular a thing. So it was agreed on, that the
citadels should be evacuated and slighted, as soon as the
money could be raised in England for paying and dis-
banding the army. Of all this the earl of Lauderdale was
believed the chief adviser. So he became very popular in
Scotland.

The next thing that fell under consideration was the
church, and whether bishops were to be restored or not.
The earl of Lauderdale at his first coming to the king
stuck firm to presbytery. He told me, the king spoke to
him to let that go, for it was not a religion for gentlemen.
He being really one, but at the same time resolving to get
into the king's confidence, studied to convince the king by
a very subtle method to keep up presbytery still in Scot-
land. He told him, that both king James and his father
had ruined their affairs by engaging in the design of setting
up episcopacy in that kingdom : and by that means Scot-
land became discontented, and was of no use to them :
whereas the king ought to govern them according to the

1 The Restoration, to the Scotch Scotland. Lauderdale Papers, i. 6,
nobility, meant in the first instance 18. According to Sharp, Clarendon
the recovery of national freedom, and insisted upon retaining the English
perhaps also of their own supremacy. garrisons until episcopacy was re-
See especially the letter from Craw- stored. See Sharp's letters to Mid-
ford, Lauderdale, and Sinclair who dleton, May 20, 25, 1661, id. ii. App.
were then in London to friends in iii ; and Mackenzie's Memoirs, 24.

O 2

196

The History of the Reign

CHAP. II. grain of their own inclinations, and so make them sure to
him : he ought, instead of endeavouring an uniformity in
both kingdoms, to keep up the opposition between them,
and rather to increase than to allay that hatred that was
between them : and then the Scots would be ready, and
might be easily brought, to serve him upon any occasion

MS. 56. | of the disputes he might afterwards have with the parlia-
108 ment of England : all things were then smooth, but that
was the honey-moon, and it could not last long : nothing
would keep England more in awe, than if they saw Scot-
land firm in their duty and affection to him : whereas
nothing gave them so much heart, as when they knew
Scotland was disjointed. It was a vain attempt to think
of doing any thing in England by means of the Irish, who
were a despicable people, and had a sea to pass : but Scot-
land could be brought to engage for the king in a silenter
manner, and could serve him more effectually. He there-
fore laid it down as a maxim from which the king ought
never to depart, that Scotland was to be kept quiet and in
good humour-, that the opposition of the two kingdoms was
to be kept up and heightened : and then the king might
reckon on every man capable of bearing arms in Scotland
as a listed soldier, who would willingly change a bad
country for a better. This was the plan he laid before the
king. I cannot tell whether this was only to cover his zeal
for presbytery, or on design to encourage the king to set
up arbitrary government in England *.

To fortify these advices, he wrote a long letter in white ink
to a daughter of the earl of Cassillis, lady Margaret Kennedy2,

1 This must be interpreted in the
light of later events, in 1669 and
1672. See Lauderdale Papers, ii.
140-176; Quarterly Review, April
1884, 437 ; English Hist. Review,
July 1886, 446, 450, 456. At the
present moment, however, the most
immediate reason for Lauderdale's
advice was the fear of losing in-
fluence in Scotland.

2 See her Letters, published by
the Bannatyne Club. In Cockburn's
Remarks, 46, 47, it is stated that the
marriage was kept secret for some
time, since Lady Margaret Kennedy
was an inmate of the Duke of
Hamilton's house ; and that, as soon
as it was known, it broke off Burnet's
friendship with that family.

of King Charles II. 197

who was in great credit with the party, and was looked on CHAP. n.
as a very wise and good woman, and was out of measure
zealous for them. I married her afterwards, and after her
death found this letter among her papers : in which he ex-
pressed great zeal for the cause : he saw the king was very
indifferent in the matter, but he was easy to those who pressed
for a change : which, he said, nothing could so effectually
hinder as the sending up many men of good sense, but with-
out any noise, who might inform the king of the aversion
the nation had to that government, and assure him that, if
in that point he would be easy to them, he might depend
upon them as to every thing else, and more particularly, if
he stood in need of their service in his other dominions :
but he charged her to trust very few, if any, of the ministers
with this, and to take care that Sharp might know nothing
of it : for he was then jealous of him. This had all the
effect that the earl of Lauderdale intended by it. The
king was no more jealous of his favouring presbytery ; but
looked on him as a fit instrument to manage Scotland to
serve him in the most desperate designs : and on this was
all his credit with the king founded. In the mean time
Sharp, seeing the king cold in the matter of episcopacy,
thought it was necessary to lay the presbyterians asleep l,
and to make them apprehend no danger to their government,
and to engage the public resolutioners to proceed against
all the protesters ; that so those who were like to be the 109
most inflexible in the point of episcopacy might be censured
by their own party, and by that means the others might
become so odious to the more violent presbyterians, that
thereby they might be the more easily disposed to submit
to episcopacy, or at least might have less credit to act
against it. So he, being pressed by those who employed
him, to procure somewhat from the king that might look
like a confirmation of their government, and put to silence
all discourses of an intended change, obtained by the earl
of Lauderdale's means, that a letter should be writ by the

1 Lauderdale Papers, i. 24-91.

198 The History of the Reign

CHAP. II. king to the presbytery of Edinburgh, to be communicated
by them to all the other presbyteries in Scotland, in which
he confirmed the general assemblies that sat at St. Andrews
and Dundee while he was in Scotland, and that had con-
firmed the public resolutions; and he ordered them to
proceed to censure all those who had protested against
them, buta would not now submit to them. The king did
also confirm their presbyterian government, as it was by
law established. This was signed and sent down without
communicating it to the earl of Middleton or his party.
But as soon as he heard of it, he thought Sharp had
betrayed the design ; and sent for him. and charged him
with it. He said, in his own excuse, that somewhat must be
done for quieting the presbyterians, who were beginning to
take the alarm : that might have produced such ap-
plications as would perhaps make some impression on the
king : whereas now all that was secured, and yet the king
was engaged to nothing ; for his confirming their govern-
ment, as it was established by law, could bind him no
longer than while that legal establishment was in force : so

MS. 57. the reversing of that would release the king. | This allayed
the earl of Middleton's displeasure a little. Yet Primrose
told me, he spake often of it with great indignation, since
it seemed below the dignity of a king thus to equivocate
with his people, and to deceive them. It seemed that
Sharp thought it was not enough to cheat the party him-
self, but would have the king share with him in the fraud.
This was no honourable step to be made by a king, and to
be contrived by a clergyman. The letter was received
with transports of joy : the presbyterians reckoned they
were safe, and they began to proceed severely against the
protesters, which was set on by some aspiring men, who
hoped to merit by the heat expressed on this occasion1.
And if Sharp's impatience to get into the archbishopric of

a but substituted for and.

1 See the letter from Robert Lauderdale, Nov. 10, 1660. Lauder-
Douglas and George Hutcheson to dale Papers, i. 34.

of King Charles II. 199

St. Andrews had not wrought too strong in him, it would CHAP. II.
have given a great advantage to the restitution of epis- 11()
copacy if a general assembly had been called, and the two
parties had been let loose on one another. That would
have shewn the impossibility of maintaining the govern-
ment of the church in a parity, and the necessity of setting
a superior order over them for keeping them in unity and
peace.

The king settled the ministry in Scotland1. The earl 1660.
of Middleton was declared the king's commissioner for
holding the parliament; and general of the forces that were
to be raised : the earl of Glencairn was made chancellor :
the earl of Lauderdale was secretary of state : the earl of
Rothes president of the council : the earl of Crawford was
continued in the treasury: Primrose was clerk register,
which is very like the place of the master of the rolls in
England. The rest depended on these ; but the earls of
Middleton and Lauderdale were the two heads of the
parties. The earl of Middleton had a private instruction,
which, as Lauderdale told me, was not communicated to
him,, to try the inclinations of the nation for episcopacy,

1 The composition of the Scottish all the land of cakes,' Alexander
ministry was a compromise between Bruce to Lauderdale, Jan -£f, 1660 \
the influences of Clarendon and which gave the holder constant ac-
Lauderdale. Of Middleton the former cess to the king, a matter all im-
had held a very high opinion since portant in the case of one of Charles's
1652, when he describes him, in nature, was won by Lauderdale, who
language which is grotesque in the besides possessing the qualities
light of later events, as being 'as already described had the merit of
worthy a person as ever that nation a long imprisonment, against New-
bred, of great modesty, courage, and burgh, who had been with the king
judgement, worthy of any trust.' in 1653, and who was on terms of
Clar. St. P., August 23, 1652. The affectionate intimacy with Claren-
similar terms used by Baillie at the don. Clar. St. P. Dec. 26, 1656.
Restoration were those of hope Crawford, his fellow-prisoner in the
rather than of experience. With Mid- Tower, and shortly Rothes, Craw-
dleton went Glencairn, who obtained ford's son-in-law, must be counted
the Chancellorship through Monks on Lauderdale's side. Middleton's
influence, and Primrose. But the initial mistake was that he paid his
critical contest, that for the Secre- court to Clarendon instead of directly
taryship ('the most considerable in to the king.

200

The History of the Reign

CHAP. ii. and to consider of the best methods in setting it up l.
This was drawn from the king by the earl of Clarendon :
for he himself was observed to be very cold in it. While
these things were doing, Primrose got an order from the
king to put up all the public registers of Scotland, which
Cromwell had brought up and lodged in the Tower of
London, as a pawn upon that kingdom, and in imitation of
what king Edward I was said to have done when he sub-
dued that nation. They were put up in fifty hogsheads,
and a ship was ready to carry them down. But it was
suggested to Clarendon that the original covenant signed
by the king, and some other declarations under his hand,
were among them 2 ; and he apprehending that at some

1 In his official instructions, Dec.
17, 1660, there is not a word about
the Church. Lauderdale Papers, \.

39-

2 Dr. Montague showed it me in
the library belonging to Trinity
College in Cambridge. D. It is
there still, but not signed by the
king. Charles ' swore and sub-
scryved the covenant ' on board ship
at the mouth of the Spey on the
Sunday before he landed on coming
from Holland, in the presence of
Mr. John Livingstone, one of the
Scottish Commissioners, who records
that ' for the outward part of swear-
ing and subscryving the Covenant
the King performed anything that
could have been required.' Life
of Livingstone (Wodrow Soc., Sel.
Biog.}. Sir E. Walker was also
present. Journal, 158. On July i,
1650, the Covenant ' subscrybed by
the King's Majtla ' was ' produced and
read in parliat,' and on July 12 in
the Assembly. This document,
which recites the 1580 Confession
of Faith, with the Solemn League
and Covenant, is on a large sheet of
parchment, endorsed by Archibald
Johnston, Clerk Register, and by

Kerr for the Assembly, which will
be found among the Clarendon MSS.
in the Bodleian, vol. 40, f. 80 (Cal.
Clar. St. P. ii. p. 67, No 347). Bur-
net states that Clarendon searched
for it in vain. But in the Cal. St.
P. Dom. 1660 -i, 260, there is the
statement of William Ryley, clerk
in the Record Office, dated Sept. 7,
1660, that he was highly commended
by Newburgh, Robinson, and Mid-
dleton, for finding the Covenant
among the Scotch papers ; that
Lauderdale was highly displeased,
but that they said that mattered not,
for ' the Book of Common Prayer
would soon be settled in Scotland ' ;
while in the vol. for 1668—9, 135,
the same William Ryley sends in
a petition for help on the ground
that, ' in 1660, I aided my father in
sorting the Scottish records, where
we found the original of the "Solemn
League and Covenant," and refused
£2,000 offered by the Scots to deliver
it up.' Clarendon doubtless refrained
from publishing the discovery, and
the copy in the Bodleian was pro-
bably the one found by Ryley. The
personal engagement of Charles runs
as follows: — 'I Charles, King of

of King Charles II.

201

time or other an ill use might have been made of these, he CHAP. II.
would not suffer them to be shipped till they were visited :
nor would he take Primrose's promise of searching for
these carefully, and sending them up to him. So he
ordered a search to be made. None of the papers he
looked for were found. But so much time was lost that
the summer was spent : so they were sent down in
winter : and by some easterly gusts the ship was cast away

Great Brittane, France, and Ireland,
doe assure and declair by a solemne
oath in the presence of Almighty
God, the searcher of hearts, my
allowance and approbation of the
National! Covenant and of the
Solemne League and Covenant above
written, and faithfully obleidge my-
selfe to prosecute the ends thereof
in my station and calling, and that
1 for myselfe and successors shall
consent and agree to all Actes of
Parliat enjoyning the Nationall
Covenant and the Solemne League
and Covenant, and fully establishing
presbyteriall government, Directory
of Worship, Confession of Faith, and
Catechismes in the kingdome of
Scotland, as they are approven by
the Generall Assembly of this Kirk
and parliat of this kingdome, and
I shall give my Royall consent to the
Actes of Parliat (bills or ordinances
past or to be past in the houses of
parliat) C. R. enjoyning the same in
the rest of my Dominions, and that
I shall observe these in my owne
practise and family and shall never
make opposition to any of these or
endeavour any change yrof. Charles
R.' By the marginal addition in
brackets, Charles promised to accept
the establishment of Presbyterianism
as already existing by virtue of
ordinances and bills passed by the
Long Parliament, to which neither
his father nor himself had given
assent. Charles II and Scotland in

1660, Pref. xxii. The king's previous
promise to sign, and the letter from
the Commissioners, saying that they
are satisfied with this promise, are
also in these MSS. David Laing,
in his ' Notes on the Scottish Cove-
nant,' Proceedings of the Society of
A ntiquaries of Scotland, i v. 240, quotes
from an unsigned and undated MS.
list of persons owning original copies
of the Covenant, which he thinks
may have been prepared for the
work known as Dunlop's Collection
of Confessions , Edinb. 1719 and 1722,
a statement that a copy ' subscribed
by Charles 2'1(1, the Nobility and others
at his Coronation,' was at that time
in the hands of Mr. James Anderson,
Writer to the Signet at Edinburgh ;
but of the existence of this no further
evidence has been found. Finally,
there was sold to an unknown pur-
chaser at the Burton-Constable sale,
on June 26, 1889,3 document on parch-
ment, possibly that just mentioned,
endorsed (apparently in a later hand)
' National Covenant and Solemn
Leage and Covenant subscribed by
King Charles the Second at his
Coronation, Anno 1651,' which, from
its contents, was evidently a copy of
that in the Bodleian. Mr. Joseph
Bain, to whom I am indebted for
this information, has no doubt as to
the genuineness of the signature,
after comparison with others in the
Record Office.

202

The History of the Reign

1661.
Ill

CHAP. II. near Berwick. So we lost all our records 1 ; and we have
nothing now but some fragments in private hands to rely
on, having made at that time so great a shipwreck of all
our authentic writings. This heightened the displeasure
the nation had at the designs then on foot.

The main thing, upon which all other matters depended,
was the method in which the affairs of Scotland were to be
conducted. The earl of Clarendon moved, that there
might be a council settled to sit regularly at Whitehall on
Scotch affairs2, to which every one of the Scotch privy
council that happened to be on the place should be ad-
mitted : but with this addition, that, as two Scotch lords
were called to the English council, so six of the English
were to be of the Scotch council. The effect of this would
have been, that whereas the Scotch counsellors had no
great force in English affairs, the English, as they were men
of great credit with the king, and were always on the place,
would have the government of the affairs of Scotland
wholly in their hands. This probably would have saved
that nation from much injustice and violence, when there
was a certain method of laying their grievances before the
king : complaints would have been heard, and matters well
examined: Englishmen would not, and durst not, have
given way to crying oppression and illegal proceedings:
for though these matters did not fall under the cognizance
of an English parliament, yet it would have very much
blasted a man's credit, that should have concurred in such
methods of government as were put in practice afterwards
in that kingdom. Therefore all people quickly saw how
wise a project this was, and how happy it would have
proved if affairs had still gone in that channel. But the
earl of Lauderdale opposed this with all his strength. He
told the king, it would quite destroy the scheme he had

1 Not all, but most that were of
special value. Primrose to Lauder-
dale, Jan. 19, 1661. Lauderdale
Papers, i. 64.

2 Clarendon himself states that
this was moved by the Scotch Com-
missioners. Cont 97.

of King Charles II. 203

laid before him, which must be managed secretly, and by CHAP. 1 1.
men that were not in fear of the parliament of England, ^8*58
nor obnoxious to it. He said to all Scottishmen, this
would make Scotland a province to England, and subject
it to English counsellors, who knew neither the laws nor
the interests of Scotland, and yet would determine every
thing relating to it : and all the wealth of Scotland would
be employed to bribe them, who, having no concern of
their own in the affairs of that kingdom, must be supposed
capable of being turned by private considerations. To the
presbyterians he said, this would infallibly bring in not
only episcopacy, but every thing else from the English
pattern. Men who had neither kinred nor estates in Scot-
land would be biassed chiefly by that which was most in
vogue in England, without any regard to the inclination of
the Scots. These things made great impressions on the
Scottish nation. The king himself did not much like it ;
but the earl of Clarendon told him, Scotland, by a secret
and ill management, had begun the embroilment of his
father's affairs, which could never have happened if the
affairs of that kingdom had been under a more equal in-
spection : if Scotland should again fall into new disorders,
he must have the help of England to quiet them : and that
could not be expected if the English had no share in the 112
conduct of matters there. The king yielded to it: and
this method was followed for two or three years ; but was
afterwards broke by the earl of Lauderdale, when he got
into the chief management. He began early to observe 1663.
some uneasiness in the king at the earl of Clarendon's
positive way ; he saw the mistress hated him : and he
believed she would in time be too hard for him : therefore
he made great applications to her. But his conversation
was too coarse : and he had not money enough to support
himself by presents to her : so he could not be admitted
into that cabal which was held in her lodgings. He saw
that in a council, where men of weight who had much at
stake in England bore the chief sway, he durst not have

204

The History of the Reign

1660.

CHAP. II. proposed those things by which he intended to establish his
own interest with the king, and to govern that kingdom
which way his pride or passion might guide him. Among
others, he took great pains to persuade me of the great
service he had done his country by breaking that method
of governing it ; though we had all occasion afterwards
to see how fatal that proved, and how wicked his design
in it was.

I have thus opened with some copiousness the first be-
ginnings of this reign ; since, as they are little known, and
I had them from the chief of both sides, so they may guide
the reader to observe the progress of things better in the
sequel than he could otherwise do. In August the earl of
Glencairn was sent down to Scotland, and had orders to
call together the committee of estates l. This was a practice
begun in the late times : when the parliament made a
recess, they appointed some of every state to sit and act
as a council of state in their name till the next session ; for
which they were to prepare matters, and to which they
gave an account of their proceedings. Now when the par;-
liament of Stirling was adjourned, the king being present,
a committee had been named : so, such of these as were
yet alive were summoned to meet, and to see to the quiet of
the nation, till the parliament should be brought together ;
which did not meet before January. On the day in which
the committee met, ten or twelve of the protesting ministers
met likewise at Edinburgh, and had before them a warm
paper2 prepared by one [James] Guthrie,one of the violen test
of the whole party. In it, after some cold compliments to

1661.
Aug. 23

1 This was in answer to a petition
from ' the Noblemen, Gentlemen, and
Burgesses of your Majesties Antient
Kingdom of Scotland, mett at Lon-
don by your Majesties authority.'
Lauderdale Papers, i. 32.

2 Life of John Livingstone, ii. 205 ;
Wodrow, i. 160. The paper is dated
Feb. 22, 1651. Wodrow gives it in
extenso, i. 68. James Guthrie had

been professor at St. Andrews,
minister of Lauder 1638 and of Stir-
ling 1649. He was a leading pro-
tester in 1650, and was the author
and presenter of the Western Re-
monstrance. There is a Life of him
published by the Committee of the
Assembly in 1847. See also Howie,
Scots Worthies, ed. Carslaw (1870),
257-

of King Charles II. 205

the king upon his restoration, they put him in mind of the CHAP. n.
covenant he had so solemnly sworn while among them :
they lamented that, instead of pursuing the ends of it in
England, as he had sworn to do, he had set up the common
prayer in his chapel, and the order of bishops : upon which
they made terrible denunciations of heavy judgments from 113
God on him, if he did not stand to the covenant, which
they called the oath of God. The earl of Glencairn had
notice of this meeting : and he sent and seized on them all, Aug. 1660.
together with this remonstrance. The paper was voted
scandalous and seditious : and the ministers were all clapt
in prison, and were threatened with great severities. Guthrie
was kept still in prison, who had brought the others to-
gether, but the rest were after a while's imprisonment let
go. Guthrie, being minister of Stirling while the king was
there, had let fly at him in his sermons in a most indecent
manner ; which at last became so intolerable that he was
cited to appear before the king to answer for some passages
in his sermons : he would not appear, but declined the king
and his council, | who, he said, were not proper judges of MS. 59.
matters of doctrine, for which he was only accountable to
the judicatories of the kirk. He also protested for remedy
of law against the king, for thus disturbing him in the
exercise of his ministry. This personal affront had irri-
tated the king more against him than against any other of
the party1; and it was resolved to strike a terror into them
all by making an example of him. He was a man of
a courage, and went through all his trouble with great firm-
ness. But this way of proceeding struck the whole party
with such a consternation, that it had all the effect which
was designed by it : for whereas the pulpits had, to the
great scandal of religion, been places where the preachers
had for many years vented their spleen and arraigned all

& great struck out.

1 Middleton had his own private quarrel with Guthrie, supra, 107 note,
and infra, 227.

2O6

The History of the Reign

CHAI. II. proceedings, they became now more decent, and there was
a general silence every where with relation to the affairs of
state : only they could not hold from many sly and secret
insinuations, as if the ark of God was shaking and the glory
departing. A great many offenders were summoned, at
the king's suit, before the committee, and required to give
bail that they should appear at the opening of the parlia-
ment, and answer to what should be then objected to
them. Many saw the design of this was to fright
them to a composition, and also into a concurrence with
the measures that were to- be taken. aThe greater part
a complied, and redeemed themselves from further vexation
by such presents as they were able to make. And in
these transactions Primrose and Fletcher were the great
dealers.

In the end of the year Middleton came down with great
magnificence : his way of living was the greatest the nation
had ever seen : but it was likewise the most scandalous ;
for vices of all sorts were the open practices of those about
him. Drinking was the most notorious of all, which was
114 often continued through the whole night to the next morn-
ing : and many disorders happening after those irregular
heats, the people, who had never before that time seen any
thing like it, came to look with an ill eye on every thing
that was done by such a set of lewd and vicious men x.
This laid in all men's minds a new prejudice against
episcopacy : for they, who could not examine into the
nature of things, were apt to take up a very ill opinion of
every change in religion that was brought about by such
bad instruments. There had been a face of gravity and
piety in the former administration, which made the
libertinage of the present time more odious.

"• For and they struck out.

1 The administration was known
as ' The Drunken Administration.'
Middleton appears to have dete-

riorated rapidly with prosperity : cf.
supra, 199 note.

of King Charles II. 207

The earl of Middleton opened the parliament on the CHAP. n.
first of January with a speech setting forth the blessing of jaI7^66i
the restoration: he magnified the king's person, and en-
larged on the affection that he bore to that his ancient
kingdom : he hoped they would make suitable returns of
zeal for the king's service, that they would condemn all
the invasions which had been made on the regal authority,
and assert the just prerogative of the crown, and give sup-
plies for keeping up such a force as was necessary to secure
the public peace, and to preserve them from the return of
such calamities as they had so long felt. The parliament
writ in answer to the king's letter a letter full of duty and
thanks. The first thing proposed was to name lords of the
articles. In order to the apprehending the importance of
this, I will give some account of the constitution of that
kingdom.

The parliament was anciently the king's court, where all
who held lands of him were bound to appear. All sat in
one house, but they were considered as three estates. The
first was the church, represented by the bishops, and
mitred abbots, and priors. The second was the baronage,
the nobility and gentry who held their baronies of the
king. And the third was the boroughs, who held of the
king by barony, though in a community. So that the
parliament was truly the baronage of the kingdom. The
lesser barons grew weary of this attendance : so in king
James the first's time (during the reign of Henry IV. of
England) they were excused from it, and were impowered
to send proxies, to an indefinite number, to represent them
in parliament. Yet they neglected to do this. And it
continued so till king James the sixth's time, in which the
mitred abbots being taken away, and few of the titular
bishops that were then continued appearing at them, the
church lands being generally in lay hands, the nobility
carried matters in parliament as they pleased : and as they
oppressed the boroughs, so they had the king much under
them. Upon this the lower barons got themselves to be 115

208

The History of the Reign

CHAP. II. restored to the right which they had neglected near two
hundred years. They were allowed by act of parliament
to send two from a county : only some smaller counties
send only one. This brought that constitution to a truer
balance ; and the lower barons have a right to choose, at
their county courts after Michaelmas, their commissioners,
to serve in any parliament that may be called within that

MS. 60. year. | And they who choose them sign a commission to
him who represents them. So the sheriff has no share of
the return ; and in the case of controverted elections the
parliament examines the commissions, and see[s] who has
the greatest number, and judge[s] whether every one that
signs it had a right so to do. The boroughs a choose their
members out of their own body when the summons goes
out : and all are chosen by the men of the corporation, or,
as they call them, the town council. And these sit in one
house, and vote together. Anciently the parliament sat
only two days, the first and the last. On the first they
chose those who were to sit on the articles, eight for every
state, to whom the king joined eight officers of state.
These received all the heads of grievances or articles that
were brought to them, and formed them into bills as they
pleased : and on the last day of the parliament, these were
all read, and were approved or rejected by the whole body.
So they were a committee that had a very extraordinary
authority, since nothing could be brought before the parlia-
ment but as they pleased. This was pretended to be done
only for the shortening and dispatching of sessions. The
crown was not contented with this limitation, but got it to
be carried further. The nobility came to choose the eight
bishops, and the bishops to choose eight noblemen : and
these sixteen chose the eight barons, (so the representatives
for the shires are called,) and the eight burgesses. By
this means our kings did upon the matter choose all the
lords of the articles ; so entirely had they got the liberty
of that parliament into their hands.

a only struck out

of King Charles II.

209

During the late troubles they had still kept up a dis- CHAP. II.
tinction of three estates, the lesser barons making one : and
then every estate might meet apart, and name their own
committees : but still all things were brought in and de-
bated in full parliament. So now the first thing proposed
was, the returning to the old custom of naming lords for
the articles. The earl of Tweeddale opposed it, but was
seconded only by one person. So it passed with that
small opposition ; only, to make it go easier, it was pro-
mised that there should be frequent sessions of parliament,
and that all the acts should not be brought in in a hurry,
and carried with the haste that had been practised in
former times 1.

1661-

1663.

1 Burnet here anticipates the
change by which, in 1663, Lauder-
dale succeeded in rendering the
power of the crown absolute. To
understand the bearing of this change
it is necessary briefly to state the
variations in practice which had
preceded it. Without extending the
research further backwards we find
that from 1544 onwards the ' Electi
ad Articulos,' or ' Lords of the
Articles,' containing separate repre-
sentations of clergy, barons, and
burghs or boroughs — the number of
members of each estate varying for
each parliament — took the place of
all previous committees. In May,
1592, for the first time, there is the
fourfold division of clergy, nobles,
barons, and boroughs. Also for the
first time it is there mentioned that
they were chosen ' by the whole
estates ' ; and this is repeated up to
1609. Whether this means that the
estates voted collectively, or that
each estate, independently of the
others, elected its own members, is
not clear. In July, 1606, occurred the
first attempt of the Crown to secure
control of the 'Articles,' when James
VI sent a letter from Greenwich

VOL. I.

nominating Lords of the Articles ' by
reason there are some more perfectly
acquainted than others with our
favourable designs concerning the
universal weal of that our kingdom.'
His nominees were, however, elected
* by the whole estates,' as was also
the case in 1607, 1609; though in
these years there is no mention of
the king's nomination. From 1612
to 1621 the Articles are merely
' elected,' without mention of the
method of election. But in the
critical year 1633 we find, for the
first time, that the nobles elected
eight of the clergy, the clergy eight
of the nobles : ' and thereafter im-
mediately the clergy and nobility
being convened together, and having
made publication of their several
elections, they all jointly together
elected and chose the persons follow-
ing of the Commissioners of the
Barons and Free Boroughs to be
upon the Articles/ eight of each. So
that Crawford's recollection was
right, when he told Lauderdale
in 1663, that ' it was the whole
noblemen (he probably meant to in-
clude clergy in this term) that choosed
the Barons and Burghs.' Lauderdale

2IO

The History of the Reign

CHAP. II. The parliament granted the king an additional revenue
116 for life of ^40,000 a year, to be raised by an excise on

Papers, i. 138. In 1639 the Crown
gained a point. Charles I, through
his Commissioner Traquair, nomi-
nated and elected the eight nobles ;
the nobles, as a whole, nominated
and elected the barons and boroughs.
Argyll, however, while acquiescing
in this innovation under the special
circumstances, demanded the settle-
ment of ' a perfect order of elec-
tion in all time coming, whereby
the Noblemen by themselves, the
Barons by themselves, and the
Boroughs by themselves (clergy are
now, of course, not mentioned), may
elect such of their own number as
shall be upon the Articles.' The
barons and boroughs handed in
similar protests, demanding election
of representatives in future by
' each state separately by itself without
any other.'' Sir Thomas Hope, the
king's Advocate (' a subtle lawyer,'
says Burnet, supra 34), replied by as-
serting that the power of election of
noblemen resided solely in the king,
and that of the barons and boroughs
solely in the noblemen. This doc-
trine was utterly repudiated, but
was acquiesced in for the moment
on the express condition that unless
a settled order were established
during that session, no other Act
which should pass the Articles
should be held to be of any force.
After the election the protests were
renewed by Argyll and others at the
first meeting. Hope thereupon de-
clared that they were ' contrary to
the laws and Acts of Parliament, and
derogatory to the inviolable and un-
controverted customs of all preced-
ing Parliaments and liberties there-
of; while Huntly affirmed that 'the
noblemen have been constantly in use
to elect the Barons and Boroughs.'

Passing now to 1661, we find
that, on January 8, the precedents
of 1633 and 1639 were both ig-
nored, and the practice previous to
1633 revived. The nobles, barons,
and burghs each chose twelve
members of their own body — as
Argyll had demanded — the only in-
tervention of the Crown being con-
tained in the words, 'subject to the
approbation of His Majesty's Com-
missioner.' Their meetings were to
be preparatory only, and full power
was reserved to Parliament to debate
all matters which had passed through
their hands. But, before episcopacy
was restored by Act of Parliament
(May 27, 1662), i. e. on May 8, 1662,
nine bishops were added by the
Crown, and it was declared that the
nomination and constitution of the
Articles should be as now settled,
'without prejudice of what course His
Majesty shall take hereafter.' This
brings us to 1663, when the great coup
was brought off. The Commissioner,
Rothes, informed the Parliament
that ' it was His Majesty's expresse
pleasure that in the constitution of
Parliament and choosing of Articles
at this session and in all time com-
ing' the precedent of 1633 should
be observed. What had been then
done appears to have been a matter
of recollection. Crawford, as we
have seen, remembered correctly
that the whole body of the noblemen
elected the barons and the boroughs.
But Lauderdale, probably at the
suggestion of Primrose, resolved,
while apparently maintaining the
precedent of 1633, to make a simple
but drastic alteration. By his scheme
the clergy chose eight nobles, and
the nobles eight clergy ; ' which
being done, the clergy and nobility

of King Charles II.

211

beer and ale, for maintaining a small force : upon which CHAP. II.
two troops and a regiment of foot guards were to be
raised *. They ordered Montrose's quarters to be brought
together, and they were buried with great state. They
fell next upon the acts of the former times that had limited
the prerogative : they repealed these, and asserted it with
a full extent in a most extraordinary manner. Primrose
had the drawing of these acts. He often confessed to me,
that he thought he was as one bewitched while he drew
them : for, not considering the ill use might be made of
them afterwards, he drew them with preambles full of
extravagant rhetoric, reflecting severely on the proceed-
ings of the late times, and swelled them up with the
highest phrases and fullest clauses that he could invent.
In the act which asserted the king's power of the militia,
the power of arming and levying the subjects was carried
so far that it would have ruined the kingdom, if Gilmour,

met together, and having shown
their elections to each other, the
persons elected (not the whole nobility
and clergy, as in 1633) . . . stayed
together in that room (whilst all
others removed) and they jointly
made choice' of eight barons and
eight burgesses. That is, these latter
sixteen were chosen by sixteen
episcopal clergy and nobles, every
one of whom was pledged to the
king, the clergy because they were
episcopal clergy, the nobles because
elected by the clergy ; instead of by
the whole body of both, which it
would have been comparatively
difficult to corrupt. Thus Burnet
has placed in 1661 what ought to
be placed in 1663. Having filched
this power the Crown made sure of
it by having the scheme adopted
and ' recorded in the Register of
Parliament ad fuiuram rei memo-
riam^ (Lauderdale Papers, i. 134). In
Lauderdale' s own words, 'whether

P

this way pitched upon be the old
way exactly or no, sure, nothing
ever was or can be devised more
advantageous for the king than it'
(id. 138) ; and, more emphatically,
' not only hath the King of Scotland
his negative vote but, God be thanked,
by this constitution of the Articles His
Majesty hath the affirmative vote also ;
for nothing can come to the Parlia-
ment but through the Articles, and
nothing can pass in Articles but what
is warranted by His Majesty ; so that
the king is absolute master in Parlia-
ment, both of the negative and affirma-
tive'' (id. 173).

1 This revenue had hitherto, or at
any rate during the last twelve years,
been raised by cess or land tax.
Charles now promised not to re-
impose this. A similar concession
to the landed interest had already
been made in England at the abolition
of the Court of Wards. Supra 21,
162.

212

The History of the Reign

CHAP. II. an eminent lawyer, and a man of great integrity, who had
now the more credit, for he had always favoured the king's
side, had not observed that, as the act was worded, the
king might require all the subjects to serve at their own
charge, and so might oblige them, in order to the redeem-
ing themselves from serving, to pay whatever might be set
on them. So he made such an opposition to this that it
could not pass, till a proviso was added to it, that the
kingdom should not be obliged to maintain any force
levied by the king, otherwise than as it should be agreed
to in parliament, or in a convention of estates. This was
the only thing that was then looked to : for all the other
acts passed in the articles as Primrose had penned them,
and from thence they were brought into parliament, and
upon one hasty reading of them they were put to the vote,
and were always carried.

One act troubled the presbyterians extremely. In the
act asserting the king's power in treaties of peace and war,
all treaties with any other nation not made by the king's
authority were declared treasonable: and in consequence
of this, the league and covenant made with England in the
year [i6]43 was condemned, and declared to be of no
force for the future 1. This was the idol of all the presby-
terians : so they were much alarmed at it. But Sharp
restrained all those with whom he had credit: he told
them, the only way to preserve their government was, to
let all that related to the king's authority be separated
from it, and be condemned, that so they might be no more

MS. 61. | accused as enemies to monarchy, or as leavened with the
117 principles of rebellion. He told them, they must be con-
tented to let that pass, that the jealousy which the king
had of them as enemies to his prerogative might be ex-
tinguished in the most effectual manner. This restrained
many, but some hotter zealots could not be governed.
One Macquaird, a hot man, and considerably learned, did

1 The Earl of Cassillis (supra, 89 note) refused the oath. Lauderdale Papers,
i. 63. Cf. infra 255, and f. 292.

of King Charles II. 213

in his church at Glasgow openly protest against this act, CHAP. 1 1.
as contrary to the oath of God, and so void of itself. To
protest against an act of parliament was treason by their
law. And Middleton was resolved to make an example of
him for terrifying others. But Macquaird was as stiff as
he was severe, and would come to no submission : yet he
was condemned only to perpetual banishment. Upon
which he, and some others who were afterwards banished,
went and settled themselves at Rotterdam, where they
formed themselves into a presbytery, and writ many seditious
books T, and kept a correspondence over all Scotland, that
being the chief seat of the Scottish trade : and by that
means they did much more mischief to the government
than they could have done had they continued still in
Scotland.

The lords of the articles grew weary in preparing so
many acts as the practices of the former times gave occa-
sion for ; but did not know how to meddle with those acts
that the late king had passed in the year [i6]4i, or the
present king had passed while he was in Scotland. They
saw, that, if they should proceed to repeal those by which
presbyterian government was ratified, that would raise much

1 ' There is a Damned book come Scots was laid upon any one possess-
hither from beyond sea called "Naph- ing a copy after that date. An
tali, or the Wrestlings of the Church answer to it was published by Bishop
of Scotland " &c., nameless. It hath Honeyman, which drew from Stuart
all the Traytors' speeches on the another book, Jus Populi vindicatum,
scaffold here, and in a word all 1671, 'which hath castin a greater
that a Toung set on fire by hell can reproach upon our religion and
say of things and persons hereaway.' nation than any in print hath yet
Moray to Lauderdale, Dec. 10, 1667, offered to doe.' Sharp to Lauder-
Lauderdale Papers, ii. 88. This was dale, Feb. 2, 1671, Lauderdale
compiled by an eminent lawyer, Papers, ii. 213. Sharp ascribes it
Mr. (afterwards Sir) James Stuart of and Naphtali both to Mr. John
Goodtrees, and Mr. James Stirling, Brown, a banished minister in Hol-
minister at Paisley. Wodrow, ii. 100. land, ' who has published another
It was proclaimed on Dec. 12, and book in Latin at Amsterdam against
ordered to be burnt ; all copies were the Libertins and Erastians, in which
to be brought in to the magistrates he does most abusively traduce the
by Feb. i, and a fine of £10,000 proceedings of King and State.'

214

The History of the Reign

CHAP. II. opposition, and bring petitions from all that were for that
government over the whole kingdom ; which Middleton
and Sharp endeavoured to prevent, that so the king might
be confirmed in what they had affirmed, that the general
bent of the nation was now turned against presbytery and
for bishops. So Primrose proposed, but half in jest, as he
assured me, that the better and shorter way would be to
pass a general act rescissory, (as it was called,) annulling
all the parliaments that had been held since the year 1638,
during the whole time of the war, as faulty and defective
in their constitution1. But it was not so easy to know
upon what point that defect was to be fixed. The only
colourable pretence in law was, that, since the ecclesiastical
state was not represented in those parliaments, they were
not a full representative of the kingdom, and so not true
parliaments. But this could not be alleged by the present
parliament, which had not bishops in it : so if that inferred
a nullity, this was no parliament. Therefore they could
only fix the nullity upon the pretence of force and violence.
Yet it was a great strain to insist on that, since it was
visible that neither the .late king nor the present were
118 under any force when they passed them : they came of
their own accord, and passed those acts 2. If it was in-
sisted on, that the ill state of their affairs was of the nature
of a force, the ill consequences of this were visible ; since
no prince by this means could be bound to any treaty, or
be concluded by any law, that limited his power, since
these are always drawn from them by the necessity of
their affairs, which can never be called a force as long as
their persons are free. So, upon some debate about it on
those grounds, at a private junto, the proposition, though
well Iiked3 was let fall, as not capable to have good colours

1 Middleton's instructions were
that the Convention of Estates of
1643 and the Parliament of 1649
were to be ignored, and all acts of
other parliaments since that time

rescinded if they entrenched upon
the royal prerogative. Lauderdale
Papers, i. 39.

2 Both kings were under a force.
S.

of King Charles II. 215

put upon it : nor had the earl of Middleton any instruction CHAP. II.
to warrant his passing any such act. Yet within a day or
two, when they had drunk higher, they resolved to venture
on it. Primrose was then ill ; so one was sent to him to
desire him to prepare a bill to that effect. He set about
it : but perceived it was so ill grounded, and so wild in all
the frame of it, that he thought, when it came to be better
considered, it must certainly be laid aside. But it fell out
otherwise : his draught was copied out next morning, with-
out altering a word in it, and carried to the articles, and
from thence to the parliament, where it met indeed with
great opposition. The earl of Crawford and the duke of
Hamilton argued much against it. The parliament in the
year 1641 was legally summoned: the late king came
thither in person with his ordinary attendance, and with-
out any force: if any acts then passed needed to be re-
viewed, that might be well done : but to annul a parliament
was a terrible precedent, which destroyed the whole security
of government : another parliament might annul the pre-
sent parliament, as well as that which was now proposed
to be done : so no stop could be made, nor any security
laid down for fixing things for the future. The parliament
in the year 1648 proceeded upon instructions under the
king's own hand, which was all that could be had, con-
sidering his imprisonment: | they had declared for the MS. 6a.
king, and raised an army for his preservation. To this
the earl of Middleton, who, contrary to custom, managed
the debate himself, answered, that though there was no
visible force on the late king in the year [i6]4i, yet they
all knew he was under a real force, by reason of the re-
bellion that had been in that kingdom, and the apparent
danger of one ready to break out in England ; which forced
him to settle Scotland on such terms as he could bring them
to : that distress of his affairs was really equivalent to a
force on his person : yet he confessed, it was just, that such
an appearance of a parliament should be a full authority
to all who acted under it, and care was taken to secure

2i6 The History of the Reign

CHAP. II. these by a proviso that was put in the act to indemnify
~~iie them. He acknowledged the design of the parliament in
the year [i6J48 was good: yet they had declared for the
king in such terms, and had acted so hypocritically in
order to the gaining the kirk party, that it was just to
condemn the proceedings, though the intentions of many
were honourable and loyal : for we went into it, he said, as
knaves, and therefore no wonder if we miscarried in it as
fools. This was very ill taken by all who had been con-
March 28, cerned in it. The bill was put to the vote, and carried by
a great majority in the affirmative : and the earl of Middle-
ton immediately passed it without staying for an instruction
from the king. The excuse he made for it was, that, since
the king had by his letter to the presbyterians confirmed
their government as it was established by law, there was
no way left to get out of that but the annulling all those
laws. This was a most extravagant act, and only fit to
be concluded after a drunken bout ; it shook all possible
security for the future, and laid down a most pernicious
precedent. The earl of Lauderdale aggravated this heavily
to the king. It shewed, the earl of Middleton understood
not the first principles of government, since he had, without
any warrant for it, given the king's assent to a law that
must for ever take away all the security that law can give :
no government was so well established, as not to be liable
to a revolution : this would cut off all hopes of peace and
submission, if any disorders should happen at any time
thereafter. And since the earl of Clarendon had set it up
for a maxim never to be violated, that acts of indemnity
were sacred things, he studied to possess him against the
earl of Middleton, who had now annulled the very parlia-
ments in which two kings had passed acts of indemnity J.
This raised a great clamour ; and upon that the earl of

1 Middleton had already, March his court to Clarendon ; kings, as

22, 1661, been rebuked by Charles Moray remarked, like to see their

for making bargains for pardons. servants depend directly upon them-

Lauderdale Papers, i. 92. He had selves. Cf. note, supra 199.
lost influence with the king by paying

of King Charles II. 217

Middleton complained in parliament that their best services CHAP. n.

were represented to the king as blemishes on his honour,

and as a prejudice to his affairs : so he desired they would

send up some of the most eminent of their body to give

the king a true account of their proceedings. The earls of 1662.

Glencairn and Rothes were sent up : for the earl of Rothes

gave secret engagements to both sides, resolving to strike

into that to which he saw the king most inclined. The

earl of Middleton's design was to accuse the earl of Lauder-

dale of misrepresenting the proceedings of parliament, and

of lying of the king's good subjects, called in the Scottish

law leasing making ; which either to the king of the people,

or to the people of the king, is capital.

Sharp went up with these lords to press the speedy 120
setting up of episcopacy, now that the greatest enemies
of that government were under a general consternation,
and were upon other accounts so obnoxious that they durst
not make any opposition to it, since no act of indemnity
was yet passed J. He had expressed a great concern to
his old brethren when the act rescissory passed, and acted
that part very solemnly for some days : yet he seemed to
take heart again, and persuaded the ministers of that party
that it would be a service to them, since now the case of
ratifying their government was separated from the rebellion
of the late times : so that hereafter it was to subsist by
a law passed in a parliament that sat and acted in full
freedom. So he undertook to go again, and to move for
an instruction to settle presbytery on a new and undis-
puted bottom. The poor men were so struck with the ill
state of their affairs, that they either trusted him, or at
least seemed to do it; for indeed they had neither sense
nor courage left them. During the session of parliament,
the most aspiring men of the clergy were picked out to
preach before the parliament. They did not speak out:
but they all insinuated the necessity of a greater authority

1 Sharp's letters to Patrick Drum- 19, 1661, will repay careful perusal,
mond from Jan. 26, 1660, to March Lauderdale Papers, i. 65-90.

218 The History of the Reign

CHAP. II. than was then in the church, for keeping them in order.
One or two spoke plainer : upon which the presbytery of
Edinburgh went to the earl of Middleton, and complained
of that, as an affront to the law and to the king's letter.
He dismissed them with good words, but took no notice of
their complaint. The synods in several places resolved to

MS. 63. prepare addresses both to king and parliament, | for an act
establishing their government ; and Sharp dissembled so
artificially, that he met with those who were preparing an
April, address to be presented to the synod of Fife, that was to
sit within a week after. The heads were agreed on ; and
Honeyman, afterwards bishop of Orkney, drew it up with
so much vehemence, that Wood, their divinity professor,
told me, he and some others sat up almost the whole night
before the synod met, to draw it over again in a smoother
strain. But Sharp gave the earl of Middleton notice of
this ; so the earl of Rothes was sent over to see to their
behaviour, and as soon as the ministers entered upon this
subject, he in the king's name dissolved the synod, and
commanded the ministers under pain of treason to retire to
their several habitations. Such care was taken that no
public application should be made in favour of presbytery.
Any attempt that was made on the other hand met with
great encouragement. The synod of Aberdeen was the only
body that made an address looking towards episcopacy.
In a long preamble they reflected on the confusions and
violence of the late times, of which they enumerated many
particulars ; and they concluded with a prayer, that since
121 the legal authority upon which their courts proceeded was
now annulled, that therefore the king and parliament would
settle their government conform to the Scriptures and the
rules of the primitive church. The presbyterians of that
body saw what was driven at, and how their words would
be understood : but I heard one of them say, for I was
present at that meeting, that no man could decently oppose
those words, since by that he would insinuate that he
thought presbytery was not conform to these.

of King Charles II. 219

In this session of parliament another act passed, which CHAP. II.
was a new affliction to all the party. The 29 of May
was appointed to be kept as a holy day ; since on that
day an end had been put to three and twenty years'
course of rebellion, of which the whole progress was
reckoned up in the highest strains of Primrose's eloquence.
The ministers saw, that by observing this act, passed
with such a preamble that condemned all their former
proceedings as rebellious and hypocritical,8- they would
lose all their credit, and contradict all they had been
building up in a course of so many years. Yet such was
the heat of that time" that they durst not except to it
on that account : so they laid hold on the subtilty of
a holy day 1, and covered themselves under that contro-
versy, denying it was in the power of any human authority
to make a day holy. But withal they fell upon one
of their poor shifts : they enacted in their several pres-
byteries that they should observe that day as a thanks-
giving for the king's restoration : so they took no notice of
the act of parliament, but observed it in obedience to their
own act. But this, though it covered them from prosecu-
tion, since the law was obeyed, yet it laid them open to
much contempt. When the earls of Glencairn and Rothes
came to court, the king was soon satisfied with the account
they gave of the proceedings of parliament : and the earl of
Lauderdale would not own that he had ever misrepresented
them. They were ordered to proceed in their charging of
him as the earl of Clarendon should direct them. He
told them the assaulting of a minister, as long as he had
an interest in the king, was a practice that could never
be approved : it was one of the uneasy things that a house
of commons of England sometimes ventured on, which was
always ungrateful to the court: such an attempt, instead
of shaking the earl of Lauderdale, would give him a faster

a They saw, that by obeying it struck out.

Wodrow, i. 104.

220

The History of the Reign

CHAP. ii. root with the king. They must therefore content them-
selves with letting the king see how well his service went
on in their hands, and how injustly they had been misrepre-
sented to him : and thus by degrees they would gain their
point, and the earl of Lauderdale would become useless to
122 the king. So this design was let fall. But the earl of
Rothes assured Lauderdale he had diverted the storm :
though Primrose a told a me, this was the true ground on
which they proceeded. They became all friends, as to
outward appearance.

Thus I have gone through the actings of the first session
of this parliament with relation to public affairs. It was
a mad roaring time, full of extravagance ; and no wonder
it was so, when the men of affairs were almost perpetually
drunk. I shall in the next place give an account of the
attainders passed in it.

The first and chief of these was of the marquis of Argyll.
He was indicted at the king's suit for a great many facts,
that were reduced to three heads. The first was of his
public actings during the war, of which many instances
MS. 64. were given ; such as his | being concerned in the delivering
up of the king to the English at Newcastle, his opposing
the engagement in the year [i6J48, and his heading the
rising in the west in opposition to the committee of estates:
in this, and many other steps made during the war, he was
esteemed the principal actor, and so ought to be made the
greatest example for terrifying others. The second head
consisted of many murders and other barbarities committed
by his officers, during the war, on many of the king's party;
chiefly those who had served under the marquis of Mont-
rose, many of them being murdered in cold blood. The
third head consisted of some articles of his concurrence with
Cromwell and the usurpers, in opposition to those who
appeared for the king in the Highlands ; his being one of
his parliament, and assisting in proclaiming him protector,
with a great many particulars into which his compliance

a substituted for assured.

of King Charles II.

221

was branched out. He had counsel assigned him, who CHAP. n.
performed their part very well.

The substance of his defence was, that during the late
wars he was but one among a great many more : he had
always acted by authority of parliament, and according to
the instructions that were given him, as oft as he was sent
on any expedition or negotiation. As to all things done
before the year [i6]4i, the late king had buried them in
an act of oblivion then passed, as the present king had also
done in the year [i6]5i: so he did not think he was bound
to answer to any particulars before that time T. For the
second head, he was at London when most of the barbari-
ties set out in it were com-mitted : nor did it appear that
he gave any orders about them. It was well known that
great outrages had been committed by the Macdonalds,
and he believed his people, when they had the better of
them, had taken cruel revenges. This was to be imputed
to the heat of the time, and to the tempers of the people, 123
who had been much provoked by the burning his whole
country, and by much blood that was shed. And as to
many stories laid to the charge of his men, he knew some
of them were mere forgeries, and others were aggravated
much beyond the truth : but, what truth soever might be
in them, he could not be answerable but for what was done
by himself or by his orders. As to the third head, of his
compliance with the usurpation, he had stood out till the
nation was quite conquered : and in that case it was the
received opinion both of divines and lawyers, that men
might lawfully submit to an usurpation, when forced to it
by an inevitable necessity. It was the epidemical sin of
the nation. His circumstances were such, that more than
a bare compliance was required of him. What he did
that way was only to preserve himself and his family, and
was not done on design to oppose the king's interest : nor

1 See also the striking letter from shank's History of the Church of Scoi-
Charles to Argyll of Sept. 24, 1650, land, 44.
quoted in the Introduction to Crook-

222

The History of the Reign

CHAP. II. did his service suffer by any thing he did. This was the
substance of his defence : he was often brought to the bar,
and began every article of his defence with a long speech,
which he did with so good a grace, and so skilfully, that
his character was as much raised as his family suffered by
the prosecution. In one speech excusing his compliances
with Cromwell, he said, what could he think of that matter
after a man so eminent in the law as his majesty's advo-
cate had taken the engagement ? This inflamed the other
so much, that he called him an impudent villain, and was
not so much as chid for that barbarous treatment. Argyll
gravely said, he had learned in his affliction to bear re-
proaches : but so the parliament saw no cause to condemn
him, he was less concerned at the advocate's railing. The
king's advocate 1 put in an additional article, of charging
him with accession to the king's death : for which all the
proof he offered lay in a presumption. Cromwell had come
down to Scotland with his army in September [i6]48, and
at that time he had many long conferences with Argyll ;
and since immediately upon his return to London the
treaty with the king was broke off, and the king was
brought to his trial, he from thence inferred that it was to
be presumed that Cromwell and he had concerted that
matter between them. While this process was carried on,
which was the solemnest that ever was in Scotland, the
lord Lorn continued at court soliciting for his father ; and
obtained a letter to be writ by the king to the earl of
Middleton, requiring him to order his advocate not to
insist on any public proceedings before the indemnity he
himself had passed in the year 1651. He also required
him, when the trial was ended, to send up the whole pro-
cess, and lay it before the king, before the parliament

1 The shameless injustice of the
trial was shown in the refusal to
allow Argyll's counsel the usual
licence, ' that what should escape
them in pleading, either by word or
writ, for the life, honour, and estate

of their client, might not thereafter
be obtruded to them as treasonable.'
Sir John Fletcher induced Parlia-
ment to order that they were to
plead 'at their hazard.' Wodrow,
i. 135 ; Mackenzie, 36.

of King Charles II. 223

should give sentence 1. The earl of Middleton submitted CHAP. II.
to the first part of this : so all further inquiry into those 124~
matters was superseded. But as to the second part of the
letter, it looked so like a distrust of the justice of the par-
liament, that he said he durst not let it be known, till he
had a second and more positive order, which he earnestly
desired might not be sent, for it would very much dis-
courage this loyal and affectionate parliament : and he
begged earnestly to have that order recalled ; which was
done. For some time there was a stop in the proceedings,
in which Argyll was | contriving a an escape out of the MS. 65.
castle. He kept his bed for some days : and his lady
being of the same stature with himself, and coming to him
in a chair, he had put on her clothes, and was going into
the chair : but he apprehended he should be discovered,
and his execution hastened ; and so his heart failed him.
The earl of Middleton resolved, if possible, to have the
king's death fastened on him. By this means, as he would
die with the more infamy, so he reckoned this would put
an end to the family, since nobody durst move in favour of
the son of one judged guilty of that crime. And he, as
was believed, hoped to obtain a grant of his estate. Search
was made into all the precedents, of men who had been at
any time condemned upon presumption ; and the earl of
Middleton resolved to argue the matter himself, hoping
that the weight of his authority would bear down all oppo-
sition. He managed it indeed with more force than de-
cency : he was too vehement, and maintained the argument
with a strength that did more honour to his parts than to
his justice or his character. But Gilmour, though newly
made lord president of the session, which is the supreme
court of justice in that kingdom, abhorred the precedent
of attainting a man upon so remote a presumption ; and he

a how he should risk struck out.

1 Mackenzie states that Lauder- until he was won over by Rothes
dale did what he could for Argyll, to cease his advocacy. Memoirs,
as an old opponent of Middleton, 37.

224

The History of the Reign

CHAP. II. looked upon it as less justifiable than the much decried
attainder of the earl of Strafford. So he undertook the
argument against Middleton : they replied upon one another
thirteen or fourteen times in a debate that lasted many
hours. Gilmour had so clearly the better of the argument,
that though the parliament was so set against Argyll that
every thing was like to pass that might blacken him, yet,
when it was put to the vote, he was acquitted as to that
by a great majority : at which he expressed so much joy,
that he seemed little concerned at any thing that could
happen to him after that. All that remained was to make
his compliance with the usurpers appear to be treason.
The debate was like to have lasted long. The earl of
Loudoun, who had been lord chancellor l, and was counted
the eloquentest man of the time, for he had a copiousness
in speaking that was never exhausted, and was of his family
125 and his particular friend, had prepared a long and learned
argument on that head. He had gathered the opinions
both of divines and lawyers, and had laid together a great
deal out of history, more particularly out of the Scottish
history, to shew that it had never been censured as a crime,
but that, on the contrary, in all their confusions, the men
who had merited the most of the crown in all its shakings,
were persons who had got credit by compliances with the
side that prevailed, and by that means had brought things
about again. But, while it was very doubtful how it would
have gone, Monk, by an inexcusable baseness, had searched
among his letters, and found some that were writ by Argyll
to himself, that were so hearty and zealous on their side,
that after they were read it could not be pretended that
his compliance was feigned, or extorted from him. Every

1 See supra 42, 47, 73. Sir John
Campbell of Lawers, created Earl of
Loudoun in 1633. The patent was sus-
pended until 1641 (cf. supra 48, note),
when he was again created Earl, with
precedency from 1633 ; he died 1663.
He was a member of the Argyll family

through his descent from Donald
Campbell, the second son of Sir
Colin Campbell of Lochow, in the
thirteenth century. Douglas, Peer-
age of Scotland. See also Howie,
Scots Worthies, ed. Carslaw (1870),
270.

of King Charles II. 225

body blamed Monk for sending these down, since it was CHAP. II.
a betraying the confidence that they then lived in. They
were sent down by an express, and came to the earl of
Middleton after the parliament was engaged in the debate.
So he ordered the letters to be read. This was much
blamed, as contrary to the forms of justice, since probation
was closed on both sides ; but the reading of them silenced
all further debate 1. All his friends rose and went out :
and he was condemned as guilty of treason. The marquis
of Montrose only refused to vote ; he owned he had too
much resentment to judge in that matter. It was designed
he should be hanged, as Montrose had been : but it was
carried that he should be beheaded, and that his head
should be set up where Montrose's had been set. He
received his sentence decently, and composed himself to
suffer with a courage that was not expected from him.

The day before his death he wrote to the king, justify-
ing his intentions in all he had acted in the matter of the
covenant: he protested his innocence as to the death of

1 Many negative arguments have present when Monk's letters arrived,

been brought in regard to this charge His Memoirs were not published

against Monk both by Campbell in until 1821. See also the Lockhart

the Biographia Britannica, and in his Papers, 599. The letters themselves,

Lives of the Admirals ; and by Rose, which were not private, as Burnet

in his Observations on Fox's Historical suggests, but official, ' produced be

Work. But they have been ably the K. Advocat in Parliament for

discussed by Sergeant Heywood in proving actis of hostilitie with, and

his vindication of the last-mentioned assisting of the English by counsall ;

work ; and the truth of the accusa- and acknowledged be my Lord Argyll

tion is perhaps sufficiently confirmed to be all writtin and subscrivit w* his

by the similar statements of Baillie, awne hand,' are in the H.M. C. Rep.

iii. 465, and of Cunningham in his vi. 617; cf.Guizot's Monk, ed. Wort-

History of Great Britain, i. 13, who ley, 293. They are indorsed 1654.

is said to have been connected with Earlier letters of 1651-2, from Argyll

the Argyll family, and who does not to Deane, Monk, and Lilburne, may

appear to have founded his report on be read also in Firth's .Scotland and

the authority of his contemporary, the Commonwealth, 333, 335, 338,

Bishop Burnet. R. The evidence £c.; cf. 'Monk1 in Diet. Nat. Biog.

against Monk is overwhelming. In To read the letters was contrary to

addition to the authorities mentioned legal custom, since the Lord Advocate

in the note, Mackenzie, who was one had closed his case. Omond, Lord

of Argyll's counsel, states that he was Advocates of Scotland, \. 174.

VOL. I. Q

226

The History of the Reign

CHAP. II. the late king : he submitted patiently to his sentence, and
wished the king a long and happy reign : he cast his family
and children upon his mercy ; and prayed that they might
not suffer for their father's fault. On the 27 May, the day
appointed for his execution, he came to the scaffold in
a very solemn but undaunted manner, accompanied with
many of the nobility and some ministers. He spoke for half
an hour with a great appearance of serenity. Cunningham,
his physician, told me he touched his pulse, and that it did
then beat at the usual rate, calm and strong. He did in
a most solemn manner vindicate himself from all know-
126 ledge or accession to the king's death : he pardoned all his
enemies ; and submitted to the sentence, as to the will of
God : he spoke highly in justification of the covenant,
calling it the cause and work of God ; and he expressed
his apprehension of sad times like to follow, and exhorted

MS. 66. all people to adhere to the covenant, | and to resolve to
suffer rather than sin against their consciences. He parted
with all his friends very decently : and after some time
spent in his private devotion he was beheaded ; and did
end his days much better than those who knew the former
parts of his life expected. Concerning which the earl of
Crawford told me this passage. He had lived always in ill
terms with him, and went out of town on the day of his
execution. The earl of Middleton, when he saw him first,
after it was over, asked him, if he did not believe his soul
was in hell ? He answered, not at all. And when the other
seemed surprised at that, he said his reason was, he knew
Argyll was naturally a very great coward, and was always
afraid of dying : so, since he heard he had died with great
resolution, he was persuaded that was from some super-
natural assistance ; he was sure it was not his natural temper.
A few days after him, Guthrie suffered. He was accused
of his accession to the remonstrance when the king was in
Scotland, and for a book he had printed with the title of
The causes of God's wrath ^ipon the nation1, in which the

1 Lauderdale Papers, i. 72, 74, 78, and supra 205, 213. Guthrie was the

\

of King Charles II. 227

treating with the king, the tendering him the covenant, CHAP. II.
and the admitting him to the exercise of the government,
were highly aggravated as great acts of apostasy. His
declining the king's authority to judge of his sermons,
and his protesting for remedy of law against him, and the
late seditious paper that he was drawing others to concur
in, were the matters objected to him. He was a resolute
and stiff man : so when his lawyers offered him legal de-
fences, he would not be advised by them, but resolved to
take his own way. He confessed and justified all that he
had done, as agreeing to the principles and practices of the
kirk, who had asserted all along that the doctrine delivered
by them in their sermons did not fall under the cognizance
of the temporal courts, till it was first judged by the church ;
for which he brought much dull and tedious proof1. He
said, his protesting for remedy of law against the king was
not meant at the king's person, but was only with relation
to costs and damages. The earl of Middleton had a
personal animosity to him ; for in the late times he had
excommunicated him2: so his eagerness in the prosecu-
tion did not look well. The defence he made signified
nothing to justify himself, but laid a great load on presby-
tery ; since he made it out beyond all dispute that he had
acted upon their principles, which made them the more
odious, as having among them some of the worst maxims
of the church of Rome ; that in particular, which was to
make the pulpit a privileged place, in which a man might
safely vent treason, and be secure in doing it, if the church
judicatory should agree to acquit him. So upon this occa-
sion great advantage was taken, to shew how near the
spirit that had reigned in presbytery came to popery. It
was resolved to make a public example of a preacher : so
he was singled out. He gave no advantage to those who
wished to have saved him, by the least step towards any

chief author of the ' Remonstrance.' pensation was published in 1653;

The Causes of the Lord' s ivrath against x Popery. S.

Scotland manifested in his sad late dis- 2 In 1650. Cf. supra 107, 204.

Q 2

228

The History of the Reign

June i,
1661.

CHAP. II. submission, but much to the contrary. Yet, though all
127 people were disgusted at the earl of Middleton's eagerness
in the prosecution, the earl of Tweeddale was the only
man that moved against the putting him to death l. He
said, banishment had been hitherto the severest censure
that had been laid on the preachers for their opinions : he
knew Guthrie was a man apt to give personal provocation,
and he wished that might not have too great a share in
carrying the matter so far. Yet he was condemned to die.
I saw him suffer. He was so far from shewing any fear,
that he rather expressed a contempt of death : he spoke
an hour upon the ladder, with the composedness of a man
that was delivering a sermon rather than his last words.
He justified all he had done, and exhorted all people to
adhere to the covenant, which he magnified highly. With
him one Govan was also hanged ; he had deserted the
army while the king was in Scotland, and had gone over
to Cromwell. The man was inconsiderable, till they made
him more considered by putting him to death on such an
account at so great a distance of time 2.

The gross iniquity of the court appeared in nothing
more eminently than in the favour shewed Macleod of
Assynt, who had betrayed the marquis of Montrose, and was
brought over upon it 3. He in prison struck up to a high
pitch of vice and impiety, and gave great entertainments :
and that, notwithstanding the baseness of the man and of
his crime, begot him so many friends, that he was let go
without any censure. The proceedings against Warriston
were soon despatched, he being absent. It was proved

1 Tweeddale's creditable opposi-
tion to the court resulted in his im-
prisonment, Sept. 1661, infra 231.
He was released in May, 1662, upon
the petition of the Privy Council, and
upon Middleton's assurance that he
had promised to support the re-
introduction of episcopacy. Lauder-
dale Papers, i. 99-103. For the
details of the trial see Wodrow, and,

for the death of Guthrie, Mackenzie's
Memoirs, 50.

2 Mackenzie says that the real
reason of his death was the suspicion
that he had been upon the scaffold at
the death of Charles I ; that he brought
the first news of it to Scotland, ' and
seemed to be well satisfied with it.'
Cf. Baillie, iii. 113, 122, 124, 317.

3 See supra 92.

of King Charles II. 229

that he had presented the remonstrance ; that he had CHAP. II.
acted under Cromwell's authority, and had sat as a peer
in his parliament ; that he had confirmed him in his pro-
tectorship, and had likewise sat one of the committee of
safety: so he was attainted. Swinton had been attainted T
in the parliament at Stirling for going over to Cromwell :
so he was brought before the parliament to hear what he
could say why the sentence should not be executed. He
was then become a quaker ; and did, with a sort of elo-
quence that moved the whole house, lay out all his own
errors, and the ill spirit he was in when he committed them,
with so tender a sense, that he seemed as one indifferent
what they should do with him : and, without so much as
moving for mercy, or even for a delay, he j did so effectually MS. 67.
prevail on them, that they recommended him to the king as a
fit object of his mercy. This was the more easily consented
to by the earl of Middleton in hatred to the earl of Lander-
dale, who had got the gift of his estate. He had two good
pleas in law : the one was, that the record of his attainder
at Stirling, with all that had passed in that parliament, was
lost : the other was, that by the act rescissory that parliament 128
being annulled, all that [was] done by it was void : but he
urged neither, since there was matter enough to attaint him
of new if the defects of that supposed attainder had been
observed. So till the act of indemnity was passed he was
still in danger, having been the man of all Scotland that
had been the most trusted and employed by Cromwell :
but upon passing the act of indemnity he was safe2.

The session of parliament was now brought to a con-
clusion, without any motion for an indemnity. The secret
of this was, that since episcopacy was to be set up, and

1 SeesM/>ra 96, 194 ; and Aikman's which Swinton possessed by dona-
Annals of the Persecution, 24. He was tion when he himself was forfaultcd
cited before parliament at Perth, by the English parliament.
1651, but absented himself and was 2 Middleton's instructions con-
thereupon forfaulted. Lauderdale cerning an Act of Indemnity are
now acquired his estates in recom- dated Jan. 29, 166^. Lauderdale
pense for the rents of Brunston Papers, i. 103.

230 The History of the Reign

CHAP. ii. that those who were the most like to oppose it were on
other accounts obnoxious, it was thought best to keep
them under that fear till the change should be made The
earl of Middleton went up to court full of merit, and as full
of pride. He had a mind to be lord treasurer ; and told
the king, that, if he intended to set up episcopacy, the earl
of Crawford, that was a noted presbyterian, must be put
out of that post : it was the opinion of the king's zeal for
that form of government that must bear down all the
opposition that might otherwise be made to it : and it
would not be possible to persuade the nation of that as
long as they saw the white staff in such hands. There-
fore, on the first day that a Scottish council was called
after he came up, he gave a long account of the proceed-
ings of parliament, and magnified the zeal and loyalty that
many had expressed, while others that had been not only
pardoned, but were highly trusted by the king, had been
often cold and backward, and sometimes plainly against
his service. The earl of Lauderdale was ill that day : so
the earl of Crawford undertook to answer this reflection,
which he thought was meant of himself, for opposing the
act rescissory. He said, he had observed such an entire
unanimity in carrying on the king's service that he did not
know of any that had acted otherwise : and therefore he
moved, that the earl of Middleton might speak plain, and
name persons. The earl of Middleton desired to be ex-
cused : he did not intend to accuse any, but yet he thought
he was bound to let the king know how he had been served.
The earl of Crawford still pressed him to speak out after so
general an accusation : no doubt he would inform the king
in private who these persons were : and since he had already
gone so far in public, he thought he ought to go further.
The earl of Middleton was in some confusion, for he did
not expect to be thus attacked : so to get off, he named
the opposition that the earl of Tweeddale had made to the
sentence passed on Guthrie, not without indecent reflections,
129 as if his prosecution had flowed from the king's resentments

of King Charles II. 231

of his behaviour to himself: and so he turned the matter, CHAP. II.
that the earl of Tweeddale's reflection, which was thought
indeed pointed against himself, should seem as meant against
the king. The earl of Crawford upon this said, that the
earl of Middleton ought to have excepted to the words
when they were first spoken, and no doubt the parliament
would have done the king justice : but it was never thought
consistent with the liberty of speech in parliament, to bring
men into question afterwards for words spoken in any
debate when they were not challenged as soon as they
were spoken. The earl of Middleton excused himself: he
said, the thing was passed before he made due reflections
on it ; and so asked pardon for that omission. The earl of
Crawford was glad he himself had escaped, and was silent
as to the earl of Tweeddale's concern : so, nobody offering
to excuse him, an order was presently sent down for com-
mitting him to prison, and for examining him upon the
words he had spoken, and on his meaning in them 1. That
was not a time in which men durst pretend to privilege, or
the freedom of debate : so he did not insist on it, but sent
up such an account of his words, and such an explanation
of them, as fully satisfied the king. So after the imprison- Sept. 1661.
ment of some weeks, he was set at liberty. But this raised May, 1662.
a great outcry against the earl of Middleton, as a thing
that was contrary to the freedom of debate, and destructive
of the liberty of parliament. It lay the more open to cen-
sure, because the earl of Middleton had accepted of a great
entertainment from the earl of Tweeddale after Guthrie's
business was over : and it seemed contrary to the rules of
hospitality, to have such a design in his heart against a
man in whose house he had been so treated : all the excuse
he made for it was, that he never intended it, but that the
earl of Crawford had pressed him so hard upon the com-
plaint he had made in general, that he had no way of get-
ting out of it without naming some particular, and he had
no other so ready then at hand.

1 See supra 228, note.

232

The History of the Reign

MS. 68.

CHAP. ii. | Another difference of greater moment fell in between
him and the earl of Crawford. The earl of Middleton was
now raising the guards that were to be paid out of the
excise granted by the parliament. So he moved, that the
excise might be raised by collectors named by himself as
general, that so he might not depend on the treasury for
the pay of the forces. The earl of Crawford opposed this
with great advantage, since all revenues given the king did
by the course of law come into the treasury. Scotland
was not in a condition to maintain two treasurers : and, as
to what was said of the necessity of having the pay of the
130 army well ascertained, and ever ready, otherwise it would
become a grievance to the kingdom, he said the king was
master, and what orders soever he thought fit to send to
the treasury they would be most punctually obeyed. But
the earl of Middleton knew there would be a great over-
plus of the excise, beyond the pay of the troops : and he
reckoned that if the collection was put in his hands, he
would easily get a grant of the overplus at the year's end.
The earl of Crawford said, no such thing was ever pretended
to by any general, unless by such as set up to be indepen-
dent, and who hoped by that means to make themselves
the masters of the army. So he carried the point, which
was thought a victory. And the earl of Middleton was much
blamed for putting his interest at court on such an issue,
where the pretension was so unusual and so unreasonable.

The next point was concerning Argyll's estate. The
king was inclined to restore the lord Lorn ; though much
pains was taken to persuade him that all the zeal he had
expressed in his service was only an artifice between his
father and him to preserve the family in all adventures : it
was said, that had been an ordinary practice in Scotland
for father and son to put themselves in different sides 1.
The marquis of Argyll had taken very extraordinary
methods to raise his own family to such a superiority in
the Highlands that he was a sort of a king among them.

1 See supra 102, note.

of King Charles II. 233

The marquis of Huntly had married his sister, and during CHAP. 1 1.
their friendship he was bound with him for some of his
debts. After that, the marquis of Huntly, as he neglected
his affairs, so he engaged in the king's side, by which
Argyll saw he must be undone1. So he pretended that
he only intended to secure himself, when he bought in prior
mortgages and debts, which, as was believed, were com-
pounded at very low rates. The friends of that family
pressed the king hard to give his heir the confiscation
of that part of Argyll's estate in which the marquis of
Huntly's debts and all the pretensions on his estate were
comprehended. And it was given to the marquis of
Huntly, now duke of Gordon, then a young child : but no
care was taken to breed him a protestant 2. The marquis
of Montrose, and all others whose estates had been ruined
under Argyll's conduct, expected likewise reparation out
of his estate ; which was a very great one, but in no way
able to satisfy all those demands. And it was believed
that the earl of Middleton himself hoped to have carried
away the main bulk of it : so that both the lord Lorn and
he concurred, though with different views, to put a stop to
all the pretensions made upon it.

CHAPTER III.

Restoration of Episcopacy in Scotland.

THE point of the greatest importance then under con-
sideration was whether episcc/pacy should be restored in
Scotland or not. The earl of Middleton assured the king. 131

1 The Covenanters at length took informed Sheldon, on Sept. 4, 1665,
the head of this brave and loyal that he had obtained an order to the
nobleman from his shoulders [March Privy Council, to take care of the
16, 1649], but not his heart from his education of the Marquis of Huntly's
sovereign, as in the beginning of and other noblemen's children, who
these troubles he told them they were Papists. Sheldon MSS., Bodl.
should not. R. R. Cf. infra 428.

2 Burnet, Archbishop of Glasgow,

234

The History of the Reign

CHAP. in. it was desired by the greater and honester part of the
nation. One synod had as good as petitioned for it : and
many others wished for it, though the share they had in
the late wars made them think it was not fit or decent for
them to move for it. Sharp assured the king, that none
but the protesters, of whom he had a very bad opinion,
were against it ; and that of the public resolutioners there
would not be found twenty that would oppose it. All who
were for making the change agreed that it ought to be
done now in the first heat of joy after the restoration, and
before the act of indemnity passed. The earl of Lauder-
dale and all his friends, on the other hand, assured the
king, that the national prejudice against it was still very
strong ; that those who seemed zealous for it run into that
only as a method to procure favour, but that those who
were against it would be found stiff and eager in their
opposition to it ; that by setting it up the king would lose
the affections of the nation, and that the supporting it
would grow a heavy load on his government. The earl of
Lauderdale turned all this, that looked like a zeal for
presbytery, to a dexterous insinuating himself into the
king's confidence, as one that seemed to design nothing
but his greatness, and the having Scotland sure to him, in
order to the executing of any design he might afterwards
be engaged in. He said, he remembered well the aversion
that he himself had observed in that nation to any thing
that looked a superiority in the church. But to that the
earl of Middleton and Sharp answered by assuring him
that the insolencies committed by the presbyterians while
they governed, and the ten years' usurpation that had
followed, had made such a change in people's tempers that
they were much altered since he had been among them.
MS. 69. The king naturally hated presbytery : and, having called
a new parliament in England that did with great zeal
espouse the interests of the church of England, and was
beginning to complain of the evacuating the garrisons held
by their army in that kingdom, he did easily give way,

of King Charles II. 235

though with a visible reluctancy, to the change of the CHAP. III.
church government in Scotland. The aversion he seemed
to express was imputed to his own indifference as to all
those matters, and to his unwillingness to involve his
government in new troubles. But the view of things that
the earl of Lauderdale had given him was the true root of
all that coldness. The earl of Clarendon set it on with
great zeal ; and so did the duke of Ormond, who said it
would be very hard to maintain the government of the
church in Ireland if presbytery continued in Scotland ;
since the northern counties, which were the best stocked
of any they had, as they were originally from Scotland, 132
so they would still follow the way of that nation \ Upon
all this diversity of opinion, the thing was proposed in a
Scotch council at Whitehall. The earl of Crawford de-
clared himself against it : but the earl of Lauderdale, the
duke of Hamilton, and sir Robert Moray, were only for
delaying the making any such change till the king should
be better satisfied concerning the inclinations of the nation2.
The result of the debate, all the rest who were present
being earnest for the change, was, that a letter was writ to
the privy council of Scotland, intimating the king's inten-
tions for setting up episcopacy, and demanding their advice
upon it. The earl of Glencairn ordered the letter to be
read, having taken care that such persons should be present
who he knew would speak warmly for it, that so others
who might intend to oppose it might be frightened from
doing it. None spoke against it but the earl of Kincardin.
He proposed that some certain methods might be taken,
by which they might be well informed, and so be able to
inform the king, of the temper of the nation, before they
offered an advice, that might have such effects a very much

ft as might struck out.

1 The close touch between the 2 Compare Mackenzie, 55, and the

Presbyterians of the two countries far less probable account in Clafen-

is fully illustrated in both the Essex don, Cont. 485.
and Lauderdale Papers.

236 The History of the Reign

CHAP. III. to perplex, if not to disorder, all their affairs. Some smart
repartees passed between the earl of Glencairn and him.
This was all the opposition that was made at that board.
So a letter was writ to the king from thence, encouraging
him to go on, and assuring him that the change he intended
to make would give a general satisfaction to the main body
of the nation.

Upon that the thing was resolved on. It remained after
this only to consider the proper methods of doing it, and
the men who ought to be employed in it. Sheldon and
the English bishops had a an a aversion to all that had been
engaged in the covenant : so they were for seeking out all
the episcopal clergy who had been driven out of Scotland
in the beginning of the troubles, and preferring them.
There was but one of the old bishops left alive, Sydserfe,
that had been bishop of Galloway. He had come up to
London, not doubting but that he should be advanced to
the primacy of Scotland. It is true, he had of late done
some very irregular things. When the act of uniformity
required all men who held any benefices in England to be
episcopally ordained, he, who by observing the ill effects of
their former violence was become very moderate,b with
others of the Scotch clergy that gathered about him,c did
set up a very indefensible practice of ordaining all those of
the English clergy who came to him, and that without
demanding either oaths or subscriptions of them. Some
believed that this was done by him only to subsist on the
fees that arose from the letters of orders so granted ; for
133 he was very poor. This did so disgust the English bishops
at him and his d company ,d that they took no care of him.
Yet they were much against a set of presbyterian bishops ;
they believed they could have no credit, and that they
would have no zeal. This touched Sharp in the quick : so
he laid the matter before the earl of Clarendon. He said,
these old episcopal men, by their long absence out of Scot-

ft altered from a deep. b and struck out. c was reduced to extreme

want struck out. d substituted for crew.

of King Charles II. 237

land, knew nothing of the present generation : and by the CHAP. in.

ill usage they had met with, they were so irritated that

they would run matters quickly to great extremities : and,

if there was a faction among the bishops, some valuing

themselves upon their constant steadiness, and looking

with an ill eye on those who had been carried away with

the stream, this would divide and distract their councils,

whereas a set of men of moderate principles would be

more uniform in their proceedings. This prevailed with

the earl of Clarendon, who saw the king so remiss in that

matter that he resolved to keep things in as great temper

as was possible. And he, not doubting that Sharp would

pursue that in which he seemed to be so zealous, and that

he would carry things with great moderation, persuaded

the bishops of England to leave the management of that

matter wholly to him. And upon that, Sharp, being assured

of that at which he had long aimed, laid aside his mask,

and owned that he was to be archbishop of St. Andrews.

He said to some, from whom I had it, that when he

saw that the king was resolved on the change, and that

some hot men were like to be advanced, whose violence

would ruin the country, he had submitted to that post on

design to moderate matters, and to cover some good men

from a storm that might otherwise break upon them. So

deeply did he still dissemble : for now he talked of nothing

so much as of love and moderation.

| Sydserfe was removed to be bishop of Orkney, one of MS. 70
the best revenues of any of the bishoprics in Scotland : but
it had been almost in all times a sinecure. He lived little
more than a year after his translation. He had died in
more esteem if he had died a year before it *. But Sharp
was ordered to find out proper men for filling the other
sees. That care was left entirely to him. The choice was
generally very bad.

1 Cf. supra 39. See the testimony note. He held the See of Orkney
to Sydserfe's character in the letter from 1662 to 1664.
of Burriet's father, quoted above, 58,

238

The History of the Reign

CHAP. in. Two men were brought up to be consecrated in England,
Fairfoul, designed for the see of Glasgow, and Hamilton,
brother to the lord Belhaven l, for Galloway. The former
of these was a pleasant and facetious man, insinuating and
crafty : but he was a better physician than a divine. His
life was scarce free of scandal, and he was eminent in
nothing that belonged to his own function. He had not
134 only sworn the covenant, but had persuaded others to do
it ; and when one objected to him, that it went against
his conscience, he answered, there were some very good
medicines that could not be chewed, but these were to be
swallowed down in a pill or a bolus ; and since it was plain
that a man could not live in Scotland unless he sware it,
therefore it must be swallowed down without any further
examination'2. Whatever the matter was, soon after his
consecration his parts sunk so fast that in a few months he,
who had passed his whole life long for one of the cunningest
men in Scotland, became almost a changeling ; upon which
it may be easily collected what commentaries the presby-
terians would make. Sharp lamented this to me, as one of
their great misfortunes ; he said it began to appear in less
than a month after he came to London. Hamilton was
a good natured man, but weak: he was always believed
episcopal, yet he had so far complied in the time of the
covenant, that he affected a peculiar expression of his
counterfeit zeal for their cause, to secure himself from sus-
picion : at every time when he gave the sacrament, he
excommunicated all that were not true to the covenant,
using a form in the Old Testament of shaking out the lap
of his gown, saying, so did he cast out of the church and
communion all that dealt falsely in the covenant.

1 Sir John Hamilton of Broomhill
and Beil, created Baron Belhaven,
Dec. 15, 1647, died in 1679. The
former Belhaven peerage (supra 30)
was extinct in 1639. Fairfoul was
Bishop of Glasgow from 1661 to
1664, and Hamilton of Galloway from

1661 to 1674.

2 At once the explanation and the
excuse for the action of all the turn-
coats. It is especially the key to
the contrast between the early and
later careers of Lauderdale and his
like.

of King Charles II. 239

With these there was a fourth man found out, who was CHAP. III.
then at London in his return from the Bath, where he had
been for his health : and on him I will enlarge more copi-
ously. He was the son of doctor Leighton, that had in arch-
bishop Laud's time writ Zioris Plea against the Prelates ;
for which he was condemned in the Star-chamber to have
his ears cut and his nose slit. He Avas a man of a violent
and ungoverned heat1. He sent his eldest son Robert to
be bred in Scotland, who was accounted a saint from his
youth up 2. He had great quickness of parts, a lively
apprehension, with a charming vivacity of thought and
expression. He had the greatest command of the purest
Latin that ever I knew in any man. He was aa master
both in Greek and Hebrew, and in the whole compass of
theological learning, chiefly in the study of the Scriptures.
But that which excelled all the rest, he came to be pos-
sessed with the highest and noblest sense of divine things
that I ever saw in any man. He had no regard to his
person, unless it was to mortify it by a constant low diet,
that was like a perpetual fast. He hadba contempt both
ofb wealth or reputation. He seemed to have the lowest
thoughts of himself possible, and to desire that all other
persons should think as meanly of him as he himself did.
He bore all sort of ill usage and reproach like a man that

a great struck out. b substituted for no regard to.

1 In his book, which was dedicated withtheselfish, subservient, and cruel
to the Parliament, he incited the conduct of many of the other bishops
members of it to ' smite the prelates of Scotland at this period, and with
under the fifth rib/ p. 128, 2nd edit. the uncompromising fanaticism of the
However, in the conclusion, where Conventiclers, was at once the ad-
he says that the bishops are like miration and the embarrassment both
pleuritic patients, whom nothing but of the government and of its oppo-
incision will cure, he adds, ' we mean nents. See especially the Lander-
of their callings, nottheir persons.' R. dale Papers, ii. 84-238 and iii. 49, 76.
Walker, Journal, 177, styles him There is a sympathetic memoir of
'Keeper of the Prisoners for the Leighton, by Principal Tulloch. in the
Rebels in Lambeth House.' third series of the St. Giles Lectures

2 See later, f. 288. The saintliness on Scottish Divines. See also S. T.
of Leighton (1611-1684), in contrast Coleridge, Works (^1884^, v- 3^4-

240 The History of the Reign

CHAP. in. took pleasure in it. He had so subdued the natural heat
of his temper, that in a great variety of accidents, and
135 in a course of 22 a years' intimate conversation with him,
I never observed the least sign of passion, but upon one
single occasion. He brought himself into so composed
a gravity, that I never saw him laugh and but seldom
smile. And he kept himself in such a constant recollec-
tion, that I do not remember that ever I heard him say
one idle word. There was a visible tendency in all he said
to raise his own mind, and those he conversed with, to
serious reflections. He seemed to be in perpetual medita-
tion. And, though the whole course of his life was strict
and ascetical, yet he had nothing of the sourness of temper
that generally possesses men of that sort. He was the
freest of superstition, of censuring others, or of imposing
his own methods on them, possible ; so that he did not so
much as recommend them to others. He said there was
a diversity of tempers, and every man was to watch over
his own, and to turn it in the best manner he could. When
he spoke of divine matters, which he did almost perpetually,
it was in such an elevating manner, that I have often re-
flected on these words, and felt somewhat like them within
myself while I was with him, Did not our hearts burn with-
in us while he talked with us by the way ? His thoughts
were lively, oft out of the way and surprising, yet just and
genuine. And he had laid together in his memory the

MS. 71. greatest | treasure of the best and wisest of all the ancient
sayings of the heathens as well as Christians, that I have
ever known any man master of, and he used them in the
aptest manner possible. He had been bred up with the
greatest aversion imaginable to the whole frame of the
church of England. From Scotland his father sent him
to travel. He spent some years in France, and spoke that
language like one born there. He came afterwards and
settled in Scotland, and had presbyterian ordination ; but
he quickly broke through the prejudices of his education.

a altered from 21.

of King Charles II. 241

His preaching had a sublimity both of thought and expres- CHAP. ill.

sion in it ; and, above all, the grace and gravity of his

pronunciation was such that few heard him without a very

sensible emotion : I am sure I never did. It was so different

from all others, and indeed from every thing that one could

hope to rise up to, that it gave a man an indignation at

himself and all others. It was a very sensible humiliation

to me, and for some time after I heard him, I could not

bear the thought of my own performances, and was out of

countenance when I was forced to think of preaching. His

style was rather too fine1: but there was a majesty and

beauty in it that left so deep an impression, that I cannot

yet forget the sermons I heard him preach thirty year[s]

ago. And yet with all this he seemed to look on himself

as so ordinary a preacher, that while he had a cure he was

ready to employ all others : and when he was a bishop he

chose to preach to small auditories, and would never give

notice beforehand. He had indeed a very low voice, and

so could not be heard by a great crowd. He soon came to

see into the follies of the presbyterians, and to hate their

covenant, particularly the imposing it, and their fury against

all who differed from them. He found they were not capable

of large thoughts : theirs were narrow, as their tempers were

sour. So he grew weary of mixing with them : he scarce

ever went to their meetings, and lived in great retirement,

minding only the care of his own parish at Newbotle near

Edinburgh. Yet all the opposition that he made to them was, 130

that he preached up a more universal charity, and a silenter

but sublimer way of devotion, and a more exact rule of

life than seemed to them consistent with human nature :

but his own practice did even outshine his doctrine.

In the year [i6]48 he declared himself for the engage-
ment for the king. But the earl of Lothian, who lived in
his parish, had so high an esteem for him that he persuaded
the violent men not to meddle with him : though he gave
occasion to great exception ; for when some of his parish,

1 Burnet is not guilty of that. S.
VOL. I. R

242

The History of the Reign

CHAP. ill. who had been in the engagement, were ordered to make
public profession of their repentance for it, he told them,
they had been in an expedition in which, he believed, they
had neglected their duty to God, and had been guilty of
injustice and violence, of drunkenness and other immorali-
ties, and he charged them to repent of these very seriously,
without meddling with the quarrel, or the grounds of that
war. He entered into great correspondence with many of
the episcopal party, and with my own father in particular,
and did wholly separate himself from the presbyterians.
At last he left them, and withdrew from his cure : for he
could not do the things imposed on him any longer. And
yet he hated all contention so much, that he chose rather
to leave them in a silent manner than to engage in any
disputes with them. But he had generally the reputation
of a saint, and of something above human nature in him :
so the mastership of the college of Edinburgh falling vacant
some time after, and it being in the gift of the city, he was
prevailed with to accept of it, because in it he was wholly
separated from all church matters. He continued ten years
in that post, and was a great blessing in it ; for he talked
so to all the youth of any capacity or distinction that it had
a great effect on many of them. He preached often to
them : and if crowds broke in, which they were apt to do,
he would have gone on in his sermon in Latin, with aa
purity and life that charmed all who understood it. Thus
he had lived above twenty years in Scotland, in the highest
reputation that any man in my time ever had in that
kingdom.

But he had a brother, well known at court, sir Elisha,
who was very like him in face and in the vivacity of his
parts, but the most unlike him in all other things that can
be imagined : for, though he loved to talk of great sublimi-
ties in religion, yet he was a very immoral man, both lewd,
false, and ambitious. He was a papist of a form of his
own: but he had changed his religion to raise himself at

* extemporary struck out.

of King Charles II.

243

court ; for he was at that time secretary to the duke of CHAP. III.
York ], and was very intimate with the lord Aubigny, a
brother of the duke of Richmond's, who had changed his
religion, and was a priest, and had probably been a cardinal
if he had lived a little longer 2. He maintained an outward
decency, and had more learning and better notions than 137
men of quality, who enter into orders generally have. Yet
he was a very vicious man : and this perhaps made him the
more considered by the king, who loved and trusted him
to a high degree. No man had more credit with the king ;
for he was of the secret as to his religion, and was more
trusted with the whole design that was then managed in
order to it, than any man whatsoever. Sir Elisha brought
his brother and him acquainted : for Leighton loved to
know men in all the varieties of religion.

I In the vacation time he made excursions, and came oft MS. 72.

1 North, in the Examen, relates
that when Sir Ellis Leighton was
secretary to the English ambassador
at Paris, he was guilty of great ex-
tortion ; and that when he pursued
the same practices in Ireland, where
he acted also as secretary, on being
expostulated with on this account
by the Irish, he answered, ' Do you
think I come here to learn your
language?' He adds, that Leighton
died miserably in prison. R. The
extortion referred to by North was,
according to AndrewMarvell (Popery
and Arbitrary Government, ed. Gro-
sart, 317), that in 1675 he used his
interest as secretary to the embassy
in redeeming English ships which
had been taken by French privateers,
for a heavy consideration from the
owners. For this he was imprisoned
in 1677. Fleming Papers, Aug. i,
1677. In l The Duke of B's Litany '
(Poems on State Affairs, ed. 1703, iii.
93 } is the following doggerel : —
' From learning new morals from
Bedlam Sir Payton

R

And truth and modesty from Sir
Ellis Layton

Libera nos, Domine.'
North sums him up as ' The most
corrupt man then, or since, living.'
I am not aware of a single word
extant in his favour. See f. 300. See,
too, Walker's Journal, 177; Portland
MSS., H. M. C. Rep. xiii, App. ii.
140; Cal St. P. 1671, 266, 286,
512.

2 Lodovick Stuart, Sieur d'Aubigny,
was the uncle, not the brother, of
Charles Stuart, sixth Duke of Lennox
and third Duke of Richmond, who
succeeded to the title in i66o and
died in 1672. He was the third
son, and the duke was son of the
second son, of Esme Stuart, third
Duke of Lennox. He was a canon
of Notre Dame, was named Cardinal
in 1665, and died at Paris in No
vember of the same year, imme-
diately after receiving the news of
his elevation, at the age of forty-
six. Burke, Extinct Peerage. Cf.
supra 5, note.
2,

244 The History of the Reign

CHAP. in. to London, where he observed all the eminent men in
Cromwell's court, and in the several parties then about the
city of London. But he told me he never could see any
thing among them that pleased him : they were men of
unquiet and meddling tempers a: and their discourses and
sermons were dry and unsavoury, full of airy cant, or of
bombast swellings. Sometimes he went over to Flanders,
to see what he could find in the several orders of the
church of Rome. There he found some of Jansenius's
followers, who seemed to be men of extraordinary tempers,
and who studied to bring things, if possible, to the purity
and simplicity of the primitive ages ; on which all his
thoughts were much set. He thought controversies had
been too much insisted on, and had been carried too far.
His brother, who thought of nothing but the raising him-
self at court, fancied that his being made a bishop might
render himself more considerable. So he possessed the
lord Aubigny with such an opinion of him, that he made
the king apprehend that a man of his piety and his notions
(and his not being married was not forgot) might contri-
bute to carry on their design. He fancied such a monastic
man, who had a great stretch of thought, and so many
other eminent qualities, would be a mean, at least, to pre-
pare the nation for popery, if not directly to come over to
them ; for his brother did not stick to say he was sure that
lay at root with him. So the king named him of his own
proper motion, which gave all those who began to suspect
the king himself great jealousies of him. Leighton was
averse to this promotion, as much as was possible. His
brother had great power over him ; for he took care to hide
his vices from him, and to make before him a great shew of
piety. He seemed to be a papist rather in name and shew
than in reality, of which I will set down one instance that
was then much talked of. Some of the church of England
loved to magnify the sacrament in an extraordinary man-
138 ner, affirming the real presence, only blaming the church of

a both ambitious and sensual struck out.

of King Charles II. 245

Rome for defining the manner ; they saying Christ was CHAP. ill.
present in a most unconceivable manner. This was so
much the mode, that the king and all the court went into
it. So the king, upon some raillery about transubstantia-
tion, asked sir Elisha if he believed it. He answered, he
could not well tell ; but he was sure the church of England
believed it. And when the king seemed amazed at that,
he replied, do not you believe that Christ is present in
a most unconceivable manner ? Which the king granted :
then said he, that is just transubstantiation, the most Un-
conceivable thing that was ever yet invented. When
Leighton was prevailed on to accept a bishopric, he chose
Dunblane, a small diocese, as well as a little revenue1. But
the deanery of the chapel royal was annexed to that see.
So he was willing to engage in that, that he might set up
the common prayer in the king's chapel ; for the rebuilding
of which orders were given. The English clergy were well
pleased with him, finding him both more learned, and more
thoroughly theirs in the other points of uniformity, than
the rest of the Scotch clergy, whom they could not much
value. And though Sheldon did not very much like his
great strictness, in which he had no mind to imitate him,
yet he thought such a man as he was might give credit to
episcopacy in its first introduction to a nation much preju-
diced against it. Sharp did not know what to make of all
this : he neither liked his strictness of life nor his notions :
he believed they would not take the same methods, and he
fancied he might be much obscured by him ; for he feared
he would be well supported. He saw the earl of Lauder-
dale began to magnify him ; and so he did all he could to
discourage him, but without any effect ; for he had no re-
gard to him. I bear still the greatest veneration for the
memory of that man that I do to any person, and reckon
my early knowledge of him, which happened the year after
this, and my long and intimate conversation with him, that

1 He remained at Dumblane from Burnet in the archbishopric of
1661 until he succeeded Alexander Glasgow in 1674.

246 The History of the Reign

CHAP. ill. continued to his death for 23 years, in all which time he
made it very visible that I was the person he made most
use of, and relied most upon, I say I reckon this among
the greatest blessings of my life, and for which I know
I must give an account to God in the great day in a most
particular manner. And yet, though I know this account
of his promotion may seem a blemish upon him, I would
not conceal it, being resolved to write of all persons and
things with all possible candor. I had the relation of it
from himself, and more particularly from his brother. But
what hopes soever the papists had of him at this time,
when he knew nothing of the design of bringing in popery,
and had therefore talked of some points of popery with the
freedom of an abstracted and speculative man, yet he ex-
pressed another sense of the matter, when he came to see
139 it was really intended to be brought in among us. He
then spoke of popery in the complex at much another rate :
and he seemed to have more zeal against it than I thought
was in his nature with relation to any points in controversy ;
for his abstraction made him seem cold in all those matters.
But he gave all who conversed with him a very different view
of popery, when he saw we were really in danger of coming
under the power of a religion that had, as he used to say,
much of the wisdom that was earthly, sensual, and devilish,
MS. 73. | but had nothing in it of the wisdom that was from above,
and was pure and peaceable. He did indeed think the
corruptions and cruelties of Popery were such gross and
odious things, that nothing could have maintained that
church under those just and visible prejudices but the
several orders among them, that had such an appearance
of mortification and contempt of the world ; that with all
the trash that was among them this maintained a face of
piety and devotion. He also thought the great and fatal
error of the Reformation was, that more of those houses
and of that course of life, free from the entanglements of
vows and other mixtures, was not preserved : so that the
Protestant churches had neither places of education, nor

of King Charles II. 247

retreat for men of mortified tempers. I have dwelt long CHAP. ill.
upon this man's character : but it was so singular, that it
seemed to deserve it. And I was so singularly blessed by
knowing him as I did, that I am sure he deserved it of me
that I should give so full a view of him ; which I hope may
be of some use to the world.

When the time fixed for the consecration of the bishops
of Scotland came on, the English bishops finding that
Sharp and Leighton had not episcopal ordination to be
priests and deacons, the other two having been ordained
by bishops before the wars, they stood upon it that they
must be ordained first deacons and then priests. Sharp
was very uneasy at this, and remembered them of what
had happened when king James had set up episcopacy.
Bishop Andrews moved at that time the ordaining them,
as was now proposed : but that was overruled by king
James, who thought it went too far towards the unchurch-
ing of all those who had not bishops among them1. But
the late wars, and the disputes during that time, had raised
these controversies higher, and brought men to stricter
notions, and to maintain them with more fierceness. The
English bishops did also say, that by the late Act of Uni-
formity that matter was more positively settled than it had
been before ; so that they could not legally consecrate any
but those who were, according to that constitution, made
first priests and deacons. They also made this difference
between the present time and king James's : for then the
Scots were only in an imperfect state, having never had
bishops among them since the Reformation ; so in such 140
a state of things, in which they had been under a real
necessity, it was reasonable to allow of their orders, how
defective soever : but that of late they had been in a state
of schism, they had revolted from their bishops, and had
thrown ofif that order : so that orders given in such a wilful
opposition to the whole constitution of the primitive church

1 Spottiswoode, 514. O Compare Heylin's History of the Presbyterians,
b. xi. c 4, p. 514. R.

248

The History of the Reign

CHAP. ill. was a thing of another nature. They were positive in the
point, and would not dispense with it. Sharp a stuck more
at it than could have been expected from a man that had
swallowed down greater matters 1. Leighton did not stand
much upon it. He did not think orders given without
bishops were null and void. He thought the forms of
government were not settled by such positive laws as were
unalterable, but only by apostolical practice, which, as he
thought, authorized episcopacy as the best form. Yet he
did not think it necessary to the being of a church. But
yet he thought2 that every church might make such rules
in ordination as they pleased, and that they might reordain
all that came to them from any other church ; so that the
reordaining a priest ordained in another church imported
no more but that they received him into orders according
to their rules, and did not infer the annulling the orders he

Dec. 1661. had formerly received. These two were upon this privately
ordained deacons and priests ; and then all the four were
consecrated publicly in the abbey of Westminster. Leighton
told me he was much struck with the feasting and jollity
of that day : it had not such an appearance of seriousness
or piety as became the new modelling of a church 3. When
that was over, he made some attempts to work up Sharp
to the two designs which possessed him most. The one
was, to try what could be done towards the uniting the
1641. presbyterians and them : he offered Usher's Reduction as

* w as very uneasy at this, and struck out.

1 ' The Scots' bishops by submit-
ting to a fresh ordination as presby-
ters, declared that they looked upon
presbyterial ordination as invalid ;
but it is plain their after-conduct
was inconsistent with this principle;
for when they returned to Scotland,
and entered upon their episcopal
functions, they reordained none
of these ministers who complied
with them ; and consequently, ac-
cording to their own principles,
these were no lawful ministers,

since they had not prelatical or-
dination.' Crookshank's Hist, of
the Church of Scotland, i. chap. 3,
126. Compare Skinner's Eccl. Hist,
of Scotland, ii. 462, where it appears
that reordination by the bishop was
not always dispensed with. R.

2 Think, thought, thought, think,
thought. S.

3 This is borne out by Clarendon,
Cont. 488. The consecration was on
Dec. 15, 1661.

of King Charles II. 249

the plan upon which they ought to form their schemes. CHAP. ill.
The other was, to try how they could raise men to a truer
and higher sense of piety, and bring the worship of that
church out of their extempory methods into more order,
and so to prepare them for a more regular way of worship,
which he thought was of much more importance than a
form of government. But he was amazed, when he ob-
served that Sharp had neither formed any scheme, nor
seemed so much as willing to talk of any. He reckoned
they would be established in the next session of parliament,
and so would be legally possessed of their bishoprics : and
then every bishop was to do the best he could once to get
all to submit to their authority, and when that point was
carried, they might proceed to other things as should be
found expedient : but he did not care to lay down any
scheme. Fairfoul, when he talked to | him, had always a 141
merry tale ready at hand to divert ahima: so that he avoided
all serious discourse, and indeed did not seem capable of
any. By these means Leighton quickly lost all heart and
hope ; and he said often to me upon it, that in the whole
progress of that affair there appeared such cross characters
of an angry Providence, that, how fully soever he was satis-
fied in his own mind as to episcopacy itself, yet it seemed
that God was against them, and that they were not like
to be the men that should build up his church ; so that the
struggling about it seemed to him like a fighting against
God. He who had the greatest hand in it proceeded with
so much dissimulation, and the rest of the order were
so b mean b and so selfish, and the earl of Middletbn, with
the other secular men that conducted it, were so openly
impious and vicious, that it did cast a reproach on every
thing relating to religion, to see it managed by such in-
struments.

All the steps that were made afterwards were of a piece
with this melancholy beginning. Upon the consecration

a substituted for the discourse. b substituted for carnal.

250

The History of the Reign

CHAP. ill. of the bishops, the presbyteries of Scotland that were still
sitting began now to declare openly against episcopacy,
and to prepare protestations, or other acts and instruments,
against them. Some were talking of entering into new
engagements against submitting to them. So Sharp moved,
that, since the king had set up episcopacy, a proclamation
might be issued out, forbidding clergymen to meet together
in any presbytery or other judicatory, till the bishops should
settle a method of proceeding in them. Upon the setting
out this proclamation, a general obedience was given to it :
only the ministers, to keep up a shew of acting on an eccle-
siastical authority, met once, and entered in their books
a protestation against this proclamation, as an invasion on
the liberties of the church, to which they declared they
gave obedience only for a time, and for peace sake. Sharp
did this without any advice : and it proved very fatal. For
when king James brought in the bishops before, they had
still suffered the inferior judicatories to continue sitting, till
the bishops came and sat down among them : some of
them protested indeed against that : yet they sat on after
that : and so the whole church had a face of unity, while
all sat together in the same judicatories, though upon
different principles. The old presbyterians said, they sat
still as in a court settled by the laws of the church and
state : and though they looked on the bishops sitting among
them, and assuming a negative vote, as an usurpation, yet
they said it did not infer a nullity on the court : whereas
now, by this silencing these courts, the case was much
142 altered : for if they had continued sitting, and the bishops
had come among them, they would have said it was like
the bearing with an usurpation when there was no remedy :
and what protestations soever they might have made, or
what opposition soever they might have given the bishops,
that would have been kept within their own walls, but
would not have broke out into such a distraction, as the
nation was cast into upon that. All the opposition that
might have been made would have died with those few

of King Charles II. 251

that were disposed to make it : and, upon due care to fill CHAP. in.
the vacant places with worthy and well-affected men, the
nation might have been brought off from their prejudices.
But these courts being now once broken, and brought
together afterwards by a sort of connivance, without any
legal authority, only as the bishop's assistants and officials,
to give him advice, and to act in his name, they pretended
they could not sit in them any more, unless they should
change their principles, and become thoroughly episcopal,
which was too great a turn to be soon brought about. So
fatally did Sharp precipitate matters : he affected to have
the reins of the church put wholly in his hands. The earl
of Lauderdale was not sorry to see him commit errors ;
since the worse things were managed, his advices would be
thereby the more justified. And the earl of Middleton
and his party took no care of any business, being almost
perpetually drunk : by which they came in a great measure
to lose the king, for though, upon a frolic, he, with a few .
in whose company he took pleasure, would sometimes
run into excess, yet he did it seldom, and had a very
bad opinion of all that got into the habit and love of
drunkenness *.

The bishops came down to Scotland soon after their
consecration, all in one coach. Leighton told me, he be-
lieved they were weary of him, for he was very weary of
them : but he, finding they intended to be received at
Edinburgh with some pomp, left them at Morpeth, and
came to Edinburgh a few days before them : he hated all
the appearances of vanity. He would not have the title of
lord given him by his friends, and was not easy when
others forced it on him. In this ahe was thought a too stiff:
it provoked the other bishops, and looked like singularity
and affectation, and furnished those who were prejudiced
against him with a specious appearance, to represent him

" altered from / always thought htm.

Supra 187, note.

252

The History of the Reign

CHAP. HI. as a man of odd notions and practices. The lord chan-
cellor, with all the nobility and privy-counsellors then at
Edinburgh, went out, together with the magistracy of the
April, '} city, and brought the bishops in, as in triumph *. I looked
1662. on . anj though I was thoroughly episcopal, yet I thought
143 there was somewhat in the slight pomp of that entry, that
did not look like the humility that became their function.
Soon after their arrival, six other bishops were consecrated,
MS- 75- but not ordained | priests and deacons 2. The see of Edin-
burgh was for some time kept void. Sharp hoped that
Douglas might be prevailed on to accept it : but he would
enter into no treaty about it. So the earl of Middleton
forced upon Sharp one Wishart, that had been the marquis
of Montrose's chaplain, and had been taken prisoner, and
used with so much cruelty in the gaol of Edinburgh, that
he had been almost eat up with vermin ; so the earl of
Middleton thought it was but justice to advance a man in
that place, where he had 3 been so near a an advancement
of another sort a.

The session of parliament came on in April 1662 : where
the first thing that was proposed by the earl of Middleton
was, that since by the act rescissory, that had annulled
all the parliaments after that held in the year [i6]33, the
former laws in favour of episcopacy were now again in force,

* struck out, and suffering for the kings service substituted.

1 On the forenoon of April 20,
1662, Sharp preached his first ser-
mon since his consecration at St.
Andrews, 'a. velvet cushion on the
pulpit before him, his text i Cor. ii.
2 : " For I am determined to know
nothing among you save Jesus Christ
and him crucified."' His sermon
' did not run much on the words,
but on a discourse of vindicating
himself, and of pressing episcopacy
and the utility of it.' Lament's
Diary. He possibly remembered
how on Dec. 13, 1660, he had declared
that * whatever lot I may meet with,

I scorn to prostitute my conscience
and honesty to base unbecoming
allurements.' Lauderdale Papers, i.
50 ; Scottish Review, July, 1884, 4, 5.

2 Cf. supra 248, note.

3 Where he had suffered so much,
was substituted in the printed copy.
He was the author of the book De
Rebus a Jacobo Marchione Montis-
rosarum in Scotia gestis. Paris, 1648.
See more of this able and good man,
f. 236. R. A new and enlarged
edition of Wishart's Memoirs of
Montrose was published by Murdoch
and Simpson, 1893.

of King Charles II. 253

the king had restored that function that had been so long CHAP. in.
glorious in the church, and for which his blessed father had
suffered so much : and though the bishops had a right to
come and take their place in parliament, yet it was a just
piece of respect to send some of every state to invite them
to come and sit among them. This was agreed to : so
upon the message that was sent the bishops came and took
their places T. Leighton came not with them, as indeed
he never came to parliament but when there was something
before them that related to religion or to the church.

The first act that passed in this session was for restoring May 27,
of episcopacy, and settling the government of the church l662-
in their hands. Sharp had the framing of this act, as
Primrose told me ; and it appeared to be his ; for, accord-
ing to the fable of the harpies, he had an art of spoiling
every thing that he touched. The whole government and
jurisdiction of the church in the several dioceses was de-
clared to be lodged in the bishops, which they were to
exercise with the advice and assistance of such of their
clergy as were of known loyalty and prudence : all men
that held any benefice in the church were required to own
and submit to the government of the church as now by law
established. This was plainly the setting episcopacy on
another bottom than it had been ever on in Scotland before
this time : for the whole body of the presbyters did for-
merly maintain such a share in the administration, that
the bishops had never pretended to any more than to be
their settled presidents, with a negative voice upon them 2.

1 On May 8, 1662, nine bishops says, that ' our ejected and dis-
were added to the Lords of the satisfied ministers plead everywhere
Articles by the king. Ads of the that they are not against bishops,
Parliament of Scotland, vii. 371. but allow episcopal praesides, who
Episcopacy was not formally re- shall preside in their meetings, but
stored until May 27. have no more power than any.' R.

2 But this negative voice appears Sheldon MSS. (Bodl.). A selection
to have been objected to by, those from these letters, relating to
ministers who were deprived of their Scottish affairs, is printed in the
benefices at this time. Archbishop App. to vol. ii. of the Lauderdale
Burnet, in a MS. letter to Sheldon, Papers.

254 The History of the Reign

CHAP. in. But now it was said, that the whole power was lodged
singly in the bishop, who was only bound to carry along
with him in the administration so many presbyters as he
thought fit to single out, as his advisers and assistants ;
which was the taking all power out of the body of the
clergy. Church judicatories were now made only the
144 bishop's assistants : and the few of the clergy that must
assist being to be picked out by him, that was only a matter
of shew : nor had they any authority lodged with them, all
that being vested only in the bishop. Nor did it escape
censure, that among the qualifications of those presbyters
that were to be the bishop's advisers and assistants, loyalty
and prudence were only named, and that piety and learn-
ing were forgot, which must always be reckoned in the
first rank of the qualifications of the clergy. In the next
place, exception was taken to the obligation laid on the
clergy to own and submit to the government thus estab-
lished by law. They said, it was hard even to submit to
so high an authority as was now lodged with the bishops ;
but to require them to own it, seemed to import an ante-
cedent approving, or at least a subsequent justifying, of
such an authority, which carried the matter far beyond
a bare obedience even to an imposing upon conscience.
These were not only the exceptions made by presbyterians,
but by the episcopal men themselves, who had never
carried the argument farther in Scotland than for a presi-
dency, with some authority in ordination, and a negative
in matters of jurisdiction. They thought the body of the
clergy ought to be a check upon the bishops, so that with-
out a consent of the majority they ought not to be legally
empowered to act in so imperious a manner, as was warranted
by this act. Many of them would never subscribe to this
form of owning and submitting : and the prudenter bishops
did not impose it on their clergy. The whole frame of the
act was liable to great censure. It*was thought an unex-
cusable piece of madness, that, when a government was
brought in upon a nation so averse to it, the first step

of King Charles II. 255

should carry their power so high. All the bishops, except CHAP. ill.
Sharp, disowned their having any share in the penning the
act ; which indeed was passed in haste, without due con-
sideration : nor did any of the bishops, no not Sharp him-
self, ever carry their authority so high as by the act they
were warranted to do. But all the enemies to episco-
pacy had this act ever in their mouth, to excuse their
not submitting to it ; that it asserted a greater stretch of
authority in bishops than they themselves thought fit to
assume.

Soon after that act passed, some of the presbyterian
preachers were summoned to answer before the parliament
for some reflections made in their sermons against episco-
pacy. But nothing could be made of it : for their words
were general, and capable of different senses. So it was
resolved, for a proof of their loyalty, to tender them the, Sept. 5,
oath of allegiance and supremacy, that had been enacted
in the former parliament, and was refused by none but | the ^ei*/
earl of Cassillis. He desired that an explanation might be MS. 76.
made of the supremacy. The words of the oath were 145
large : and when the oath was enacted in England, a clear
explanation was given in one of the articles of the church
of England, and more copiously afterwards in a discourse
of archbishop Usher's, published by king James's order.
But the parliament would not satisfy him so far : and they
were well pleased to see scruples raised about the oath,
that so a colour might be put on their severities against
such as should refuse it, as being men that refused to swear
allegiance to the king. Upon that the earl of Cassillis left
the parliament, and quitted all his employments : for he
was a man of most inflexible firmness 1. Many said there
was no need of an explanation, since how ambiguous soever
the words might be in themselves, yet that oath, being
brought to Scotland from England, ought to be understood

1 See supra 89. It seems that among the Commissioners, also failed
the Earl of Melville among the to take the oath, having probably
Nobles, and the Laird of Kilburnie absented themselves. Wodrow, i. 107.

256 The History of the Reign

CHAP. III. in the same sense in which it was imposed in that kingdom.
On the other hand, there was just reason for men's being
tender in so sacred a matter as an oath. The earl of
Cassillis had offered to take the oath, provided he might
join his explanation to it. The earl of Middleton was con-
tented to let him say what he pleased, but he would not
suffer him to put it in writing. The ministers to whom it
was now tendered offered to take it upon the same terms ;
and in a petition to the lords of the articles they offered
their explanation. Upon that a debate arose, whether an
act explanatory of the oath should be offered to the parlia-
ment or not. This was the first time that Leighton appeared
in parliament. He pressed it might be done, with much
zeal. He said the land mourned by reason of the many
oaths that had been taken : the words of this were certainly
capable of a bad sense : in compassion to papists a limited
sense had been put on them in England : and he thought
there should be a like tenderness shewed to a protestants a,
especially when the scruple was just, and there was an oath
in the case, in which the matter ought certainly to be made
clear : to act otherwise looked like the laying snares for
people, and the making men offenders for a word. Sharp
took this ill from him, and replied upon him with great
bitterness : he said it was below the dignity of government
to make acts to satisfy the weak scruples of peevish men :
it ill became them, who had imposed their covenant on all
people without any explanation, and had forced all to take
it, now to expect such extraordinary favour. Leighton
insisted that it might be done for that very reason, that all
people might see a difference between the mild proceedings
of the government now, and their severity : and said it ill
became the very same persons that had complained of that
rigour now to practise it themselves ; for thus it may be
146 said, the world will go mad by turns. This was ill taken
by the earl of Middleton and all his party : for they de-
signed to keep the matter so, that the presbyterians should

• substituted for tender consciences.

of King Charles II. 257

be possessed with many scruples on this head, and that CHAP. ill.
when any of the party should be brought before them
that they believed in fault, but had not full proof against
him, the oath should be tendered as the trial of his allegi-
ance, and that for refusing it they should censure him as they
thought fit. So the ministers' petition was rejected, and
they were required to take the oath as it stood in the law,
without putting any sense upon it. They refused to do it,
and were upon that condemned to perpetual banishment,
as men that denied allegiance to the king. And by this an
engine was found out to banish as many as they pleased :
for the resolution was taken up by the whole party to refuse
it, unless with an explanation. So soon did men forget all
their former complaints of the severity of imposing oaths,
and began to set on foot the same practices, now that they
had it in their power to do it. But how unbecoming soever
this rigour might be in laymen, it was certainly much more
indecent when managed by clergymen. And the supremacy
which now was turned against the presbyterians, was not
long after this laid much heavier on the bishops them-
selves : and then they desired an explanation, as much as
the presbyterians did now, but could not obtain it.

The parliament was not satisfied with this oath : for they
apprehended that many would infer, that, since it came
from England, it ought to be understood in the public and
established sense of the words that was passed there, both
in an article of doctrine and in an act of parliament. There-
fore another oath was likewise taken from the English
pattern, of abjuring the covenant, both the league and the Sept. 5,
national covenant. It is true this was only imposed on
men in the magistracy, or in public employments. By it
all the presbyterians were turned out l : for this oath was

1 See Ads of the Parliament of be compelled to resign. But his ene-
Scotland, vii. 405 : and Wodrow, i. mies did not know their man. The
270, 294, for its effects. Mackenzie events of 1648 might indeed be re-
states, with every likelihood, that the garded as absolving him from the
oath was pressed in the hope that charge of breach of faith; but, besides
Lauderdale would refuse it, and thus this, he was, in his own genial phrase,

VOL. I. S

258

The History of the Reign

CHAP in. decried by the ministers as little less than open apostasy
from God, and a throwing off their baptismal covenant.

CHAPTER IV.

CONTEST BETWEEN MIDDLETON AND LAUDERDALE.

THE main business of this session of parliament, now
that episcopacy was settled, and these oaths were enacted,

Sept. 9, was the passing the act of indemnity1. The earl of Mid-
l66x dleton had obtained of the king an instruction to consent
to the fining of the chief offenders, or to other punishments
not extending to life 2. This was intended to enrich him
and his party, since all the rich and great offenders would
be struck with the terror of this, and choose rather to make
a good present than be fined on record, as guilty persons.
147 This matter was debated at the council in Whitehall. The
earls of Lauderdale and Crawford argued against it. They
said the king had granted a full indemnity in England, out
of which none were excepted but the regicides : it seemed
therefore an unkind and unequal way of proceeding towards
Scotland, that had merited eminently at the king's hands
ever since the year [i6]48, and had suffered much for it,
that the one kingdom should not have the same measure
of grace and pardon that was granted in the other. The

MS- 77- earl of Middleton answered, that all he desired was in | favour
of the loyal party in Scotland, who were undone by their
adhering to the king : the revenue of the crown was too
small, and too much charged, to repair their losses : so the

willing ' to swallow a cartload of such
oaths/ while hating ' damn'd insipid
lies.' They then had recourse to the
clumsy contrivance of the Billetting
Act, infra 263.

1 As a matter of policy the English
Act of Indemnity was forced through
parliament and passed at the earliest
possible moment. In Scotland, where

no such necessity existed, it was
delayed as long as possible. Ads
of the Parliament of Scotland, vii.

4T5-

2 See the list of persons fined in
Wodrow, i. 271, the sums amounting
to over ;£i, 000,000 Scots. For Mid-
dleton's instructions, dated Jan. 29,
i66|, see Lauderdale Papers, i. 103.

of King Charles II. 259

king had no other way to be just to them, but by making CHAP. IV
their enemies pay for their rebellion. Limitations were
offered to the fines into which any should be condemned
that were plausible ; as, that it should be only for offences
committed since the year [i6]5o, and that no man should
be fined in above a year's rent of his estate ; and these were
agreed to. So he had an instruction to pass an act of
indemnity, with a power of fining restrained to these rules.
There was one sir George Mackenzie, since made lord
Tarbot *, a young man of great vivacity of parts, but full
of ambition, and very crafty, who has had the art to
recommend himself to all sides and parties by turns, and
is yet alive, having made a great figure in that country
now above fifty years. He has great notions of virtue and
religion : but they are only notions, at least they have not
had great effect on himself at all times. He became now
the earl of Middleton's chief favourite. Primrose was
grown rich and cautious : and his maxim having always
been, that when he apprehended a change he ought to lay
in for it by courting the side that was depressed, that so in
the next turn he might secure friends to himself, he began
to think that the earl of Middleton went too fast to hold
out long. He had often advised him to manage the business
of restoring episcopacy : he had formed a scheme by which
it should have been the work of seven years, in a slow
progress ; but the earl of Middleton's heat and Sharp's
vehemence spoiled all his project. The earl of Middleton,
after his disgrace, said often to him, that his advices had
been always wise and faithful : but he thought princes were

1 Sir George Mackenzie of Tarbot He was a man of wide attainments,
(or Tarbet), appointed Lord of Session and was consulted by Moray on the
with the judicial title of Lord Tarbot formation of the Royal Society, to
inFeb.i66i. He succeeded to Lauder- which he contributed many papers,
dale's power in Scotland in 1682, and He must be distinguished from Sir
was created Viscount Tarbot and George Mackenzie of Rosehaugh,
Lord Macleod of Castlehaven, Feb. the writer of the Memoirs frequently
1685; Secretary of State, 1702; and referred to in the notes. See Car-
Earl of Cromarty, 1703; he died 1714. stares State Papers (1774), 94.

S 3

260 The History of the Reign

CHAP. IV. more sensible of services, and more apt to reflect on them,
and to reward them, than he found they were.

When the settlement of episcopacy was over, the next
care was to prepare the act of indemnity. Some proposed,
that, besides the power of fining, they should move the
king that he would consent to an instruction, empowering
them likewise to put some under an incapacity to hold any
148 public trust This had never been proposed in public ;
but the earl of Middleton pretended that many of the best
affected of the parliament had proposed it in private to
himself. So he sent the lord Tarbot up to the king with
two draughts of an act of indemnity ; the one containing
an exception of some persons to be fined, and the other
containing likewise a clause for the incapacitating of some,
not exceeding twelve, from all public trusts l. He was
ordered to lay both before the king : the one was penned
according to the earl of Middleton's instructions : the
other was drawn at the desire of the parliament, for which
he prayed an instruction, if the king thought fit to approve
of it. The earl of Lauderdale had no apprehension of any
design against himself in the motion : so he made no
objection to it. And an instruction was drawn, empower-
ing the earl of Middleton to pass an act with that clause.
Tarbot was then much considered at court, as one of the
most extraordinary men that Scotland had produced, and
was the better liked, because he was looked on as the
person that the earl of Middleton intended to set up in
the earl of Lauderdale's room, who was then so much
hated that nothing could have preserved him but the course
that was taken to ruin him. So lord Tarbot went back to
Scotland ; and the duke of Richmond and the earl of
Newburgh went down with him, by whose mild and un-
governed extravagancies the earl of Middleton's whole
conduct fell under such an universal odium, and so much
contempt, that it was well his own ill management forced
the king to put an end to his ministry ; for he could not

1 Acts of the Parliament of Scotland, vii. 472.

of King Charles II. 261

have served there much longer with any reputation. One CHAP. IV.
instance of unusual seventy was, that a letter of the lord
Lorn's to the lord DufTus was intercepted, in which he did
a little too plainly, but very truly, complain of the practices
of his enemies in endeavouring to possess the king against
him by many lies : but he said he had now discovered
them, and had defeated them, and had gained the person
upon whom the chief among them depended. This was
the earl of Clarendon, upon whom the earl of Berkshire
had wrought so much, • that he resolved to oppose his
restoration no more : and for this the earl of Berkshire was
to have a thousand pound. This letter was carried into
the parliament^ and complained of as leasing-making ;
since lord Lorn pretended he had discovered the lies of
his enemies to the king, which was a sowing dissension
between the king and his subjects, and the creating in the
king an ill opinion of them. So the parliament desired
the king would send him down to be tried upon it. The
king thought the letter very indiscreetly writ, but could
not see any thing in it that was criminal ; yet, in com-
pliance with the desire of so zealous a parliament, Lorn 149
was sent down upon his parole : but the king writ posi-
tively to the earl of Middleton not to proceed to the
execution of any sentence that might pass upon him.
Lorn, upon his appearance, was made a prisoner : and an
indictment was brought against him for leasing-making.
He made no defence : but in a long speech he set out the
great provocation he had been under, the many libels [that]
had been printed against him : some of these had been put
in the king's own hands, to represent him as unworthy of
his grace and favour : so, after all that hard usage, it was
no wonder if he had writ with some sharpness : but he pro-
tested he meant no harm to any person ; his design being
only to preserve and save himself from the malice and lies
of others, and not to make lies of any. In conclusion, he
submitted to the justice of the parliament, and cast himself
on the king's mercy. He was upon this condemned to die,

262

The History of the Reign

CHAP. IV. as guilty of leasing-making : and the day of his execution
A~~26, was left to the earl of Middleton by the parliament. I never
1662. knew any thing more generally cried out on than this
MS. 78. was, | unless it was the second sentence passed on him
about twenty years after this, which had more fatal effects
and a more tragical conclusion. He was certainly born to
be the signalest instance in this age of the rigour, or rather
of the mockery, of justice. All that was said at this time
to excuse the proceeding was, that it was certain his life
was in no danger. But since that depended on the king,
it did not excuse those who passed so base a sentence, and
left to posterity the precedent of a parliamentary judgment,
by which any man may be condemned for a letter of
common news. This was not all the fury with which this
matter was driven : for an act was passed against all persons,
who should move the king for restoring the children of
those who were attainted by parliament ; which was an
unheard-of restraint on applications to the king for his
grace and mercy. This the earl of Middleton also passed,
though he had no instruction for it. There was no penalty
put in the act, from a maxim of the pleaders for prerogative,
who thought the fixing a punishment was a limitation on
the crown : whereas an act forbidding any thing made the
offenders criminals : and in that case they did reckon, that
the punishment was arbitrary; only that it could not
extend to life. A committee was next appointed for
setting the fines. They proceeded without any regard to
the rules the king had set them. The most obnoxious
compounded secretly. No consideration was had either of
men's crimes or of their estates : no proofs were brought ;
inquiries were' not so much as made : but as men were
iso delated, they were marked down for such a fine : and all
was transacted in a secret committee. When the list of
the men and of their fines was read in parliament, excep-
tions were made to divers particulars : some had been
under age all the time of transgression, and others had
been abroad. But to every thing of this kind an answer

of King Charles II. 263

was made, that there would come a proper time in which CHAP. IV.
every man was to be heard in his own defence: for the
meaning of setting the fine was only this, that such persons
should have no benefit by the act of indemnity unless they
paid the fine : therefore every man that could stand upon
his innocence, and renounce the benefit of the indemnity,
was thereby freed from the fine, that was only his com-
position for the grace and pardon of the act. So all passed
in a great hurry.

The other point, concerning the incapacity, was carried
further than was perhaps intended at first ; though the lord
Tarbot assured me, he had from the beginning designed it.
It was infused into all people that the king was weary of
the earl of Lauderdale, but that he could not decently
throw him off, and that therefore the parliament must help"
him with a fair pretence for doing it. Yet others were
very apprehensive that the king could not approve of
a parliament's falling upon a minister. So lord Tarbot
proposed two expedients. The one was, that no person
should be named, but that every member was to do it by
ballot, and was to bring twelve names in a paper ; and
that a secret committee, two of every estate, should make
the scrutiny ; and that they, without making any report to
the parliament, should put those twelve names on whom
the greater number fell in the act of incapacity; which was
to be an act apart, and not made a clause of the act of
indemnity J. This was taken from the ostracism in Athens,
and seemed the best method in an act of oblivion, in which
all that was passed was to be forgiven : so no seeds of
feuds would remain, when it was not so much as known
against whom any one had voted. The other expedient
was, that a clause should be put in the act, that it should
have no force, and that the names in it should never be

1 The whole of this very curious i. 106-140. The connected story

affair, with the discovery and frus- will be found in the Quarterly Review,

tration of the plot, maybe read in the April, 1884, 417-419.
original letters, Lauderdale Papers,

264

The History of the Reign

CHAP. IV. published, unless the king should approve of it. By this
means it was hoped, that, if the king should dislike the
whole thing, yet it would be easy to soften that, by letting
him see how entirely the act was in his power. Emissaries

Aug. 1663. were sent to every parliament man, directing him how to
make his list, that so the earls of Lauderdale, Crawford,
and sir Robert Moray, might be three of the number. This
was managed so carefully, that by a great majority they
were three of the incapacitated persons1. The earl of
Middleton passed the act, though he had no instruction
151 about it in this form. The matter was so secretly carried,
that it was not let out till the day before it was done : for
they reckoned their success in it was to depend on the
secrecy of it, and on their carrying it to the king before
he should be possessed against it by the earl of Lauderdale
or his party. So they took great care to visit the packet,
and to stop any that should go post : and all people were
under such a terror that no courage was left. Only lord
Lorn sent one on his own horses, who was to go on in
cross roads, till he got into Yorkshire ; for they had secured
every stage to Durham 2. By this means the earl of
Lauderdale had the news three days before the duke of
Richmond and lord Tarbot got to court. He carried it
presently to the king, who could scarce believe it. But
when he saw by the letters that it was certainly true, he
assured the earl of Lauderdale that he would preserve him,
and never suffer such a destructive precedent to pass. He
said he looked for no better upon the duke of Richmond's

1 This is an error. Crawford was
not excepted. He escaped by three
or four votes. For one of the origi-
nal billetting papers see the Lauder-
dale Papers, i. 115.

2 This story is barely possible.
From August 26, 1662, to June 4,
1663, Lorn was close prisoner in
Edinburgh castle ; and this, affair
was in Sept. 1662. But there is
no doubt that Lauderdale's friends

managed to send him timely informa-
tion of what had happened, and that
he was on his guard. See William
Sharp's letters, Lauderdale Papers, i.
112, 117. The secret was apparently
betrayed by James Sharp, who was
one of the scrutineers ; id. 245.
Tarbot and Primrose hoped to be
respectively Clerk Register and
Secretary. Id. 115, 117.

of King Charles II. 265

going to Scotland, and his being perpetually drunk there. CHAP. IV.
This mortified the earl of Lauderdale ; for it looked like
the laying in an excuse for the earl of Middleton. From
him, by his orders, he went to the earl of Clarendon, and
told all to him. He was amazed at it; and said, that cer-
tainly he had some secret friend that had got into their
confidence, and had persuaded them to do as they had
done on design to ruin them ; but growing more serious,
he added, he was sure the king on his own account would
take care not to suffer such a thing to pass : otherwise no
man could serve him : if way was given to such a method
of proceeding, he himself would go out of his dominions as
fast as his gout would suffer him. Two days after this,
the duke of Richmond and lord Tarbot came to court.
They brought the act of incapacity sealed up, together
with a letter from the parliament magnifying the earl of
Middleton's services, and another letter signed by ten of
the bishops, setting forth his zeal for the church, and his
care of them all : | and in particular they set out the design MS. 79.
he was then on, of going round some of the worst affected
counties to see the church established in them, as a work
that was highly meritorious. At the same time he sent
over the earl of Newburgh to Ireland, to engage the duke
of Ormond to represent to the king the good effects that
they began to feel in that kingdom from the earl of Mid-
dleton's administration in Scotland, hoping the king would
not discourage, much less change, so faithful a minister.
The king received the duke of Richmond and lord Tarbot
very coldly. When they delivered the act of incapacity to
him, he assured them it should never be opened by him ; 152
and said their last actings were like madmen, or like men
that were perpetually drunk. Tarbot said, all was yet
entire, and in his hands, the act being to live or to die as
he pleased : he magnified the earl of Middleton's zeal in
his service, and set out the loyal affections of his parlia-
ment, who had on this occasion consulted both the king's
safety and his honour : the incapacity act was only intended

266

The History of the Reign

CHAP. IV. to put it out of the power of men, who had been formerly
bad instruments, to be so any more : and even that was
submitted by them to the king's judgment. The king
heard him patiently, and, without any farther discourse
on the subject, dismissed them : so they hoped they had

Feb. 1663. mollified him. But the earl of Lauderdale turned the
matter upon the earl of Middleton and lord Tarbot, who
had made the king believe that the parliament desired
leave to incapacitate some ; whereas no such motion had
ever been made in parliament : and then; after that the king
upon that misrepresentation had given way to it, the
parliament was made believe that the king desired that
some might be put under that censure : so that the abuse
had been equally put on both. Honours went by ballot
at Venice, but punishments had never gone so, since the
ostracism at Athens, which was the factious practice of
a jealous commonwealth, never to be set up as a precedent
under a monarchy : even the Athenians were ashamed of it
when Aristides, the justest man among them, fell under the
censure : and they laid it aside not long after 1.

The earl of Clarendon gave up the thing as unexcusable :
but he studied to preserve the earl of Middleton. The
change newly made in the church of Scotland had been
managed by him with zeal and success : but though it was
well begun, yet if these laws were not maintained by a
vigorous execution, the presbyterians, who were quite
dispirited by the steadiness of his conduct, would take
heart again ; especially if they saw the earl of Lauderdale
grow upon him, whom they looked on as theirs in his heart :
so he prayed him to forgive one single fault, that came
after so much merit. He also sent advices to the earl of
Middleton to go on in his care of establishing the church,
and to get the bishops to send up copious accounts of all
he had done. The king ordered him to come up, and to

1 'That cursed sovereign Lord Mackenzie, Memoirs, 87. Burnet

the People, and their oystershell had probably seen Lauderdale's own

billetting,' is Lauderdale's phrase in copy of his speech,
his great speech against Middleton.

of King Charles II. 267

give him an account of the affairs in Scotland. But he re- CHAP. IV.
presented the absolute necessity of seeing some of the laws
lately made put in execution : for it was hoped the king's
displeasure would be allayed, and go off, if some time
could be but gained.

One act passed in the last parliament that restored the June 12,
rights of patronage 1, the taking away of which even presby- ^
tery could not carry till the year [t6]49, *n which they had
the parliament entirely in their hands ; for then the election
of ministers was put in the church session and the lay
elders, so that, from that time, all that had been admitted
to churches came in without presentations. One clause in
the act declared all these incumbents to be unlawful
possessors : only it indemnified them for what was past,
and required them between [ a ] and Michaelmas
to take presentations from the patron, who was obliged to
give it, being demanded, and to get themselves to be
instituted by the bishops ; otherwise their churches were
declared vacant on Michaelmas day. This took in all the
young and hot men : so the presbyterians had many
meetings about it, in which they all resolved not to
obey the act. They reckoned the taking institution from a
bishop was such an owning of his authority that it was
a renouncing of all their former principles : whereas some
few, that had a mind to hold their benefices, thought that
was only a secular law for a legal right to their tithes and
benefices, and had no relation to their spiritual concerns ;
and therefore they thought they might submit to it,
especially where bishops were so moderate as to impose
no subscription upon them, as the greater part were. But
the resolution taken by the main body of the presbyterians
was to pay no obedience to any of the acts made in this
session, and to look on, and see what the state would do.
The earl of Middleton was naturally fierce, and that was

* a word left out.

1 Acts of the Parliament of Scotland, vii. 376.

268 The History of the Reign

CHAP. IV. heightened by the ill state of his affairs at court : so he
resolved on a punctual execution of the law. He and all
about him were at this time so constantly disordered by
high entertainments and other excesses, that, even in the
short intervals between their drunken bouts, they were not
cool nor calm enough to consider what they were doing.
He had also so mean an opinion of the party, that he believed
they would comply with any thing rather than lose their
benefices ; and therefore he declared he would execute the
law in its utmost rigour. On the other hand, the heads of
the presbyterians reckoned, that if great numbers were
turned out all at once, it would not be possible to fill their
places all of the sudden ; and that the government would
MS. 80. be forced to take them in | again, if there were such
a vacancy made, that a great part of the nation were cast
destitute, and had no divine service in it. For that which
all the wiser of the party apprehended most was, that the
bishops would go on slowly, and single out some that were
more factious, upon particular provocations, and turn them
out by degrees, as they had men ready to put in their
room ; which would have been more insensible, [defensible ?]
and more excusable, if indiscreet zealots had, as it were,
forced censures from them. The advice sent over all the
154 country from their leaders, that had settled measures at
Edinburgh, was, that they should do and say nothing
that might give a particular distaste, but should look on,
and do their duty as long as they were connived at ; and
that if any proclamation should be issued out, commanding
them to be silent, that they should all obey at once. In
these measures both sides were deceived in their expecta-
tions. The bishops went to their several dioceses: and
according as the people stood affected, they were well
received : and they held their synods every where in October.
In the northern parts very few stood out : but in the western
parts scarce any came to them. The earl of Middleton
went to Glasgow before Michaelmas. So when the time
fixed by the act was past, and that scarce any one in all

of King Charles II. 269

those counties had paid any regard to it, he called a meeting CHAP. IV.
of the privy council, that they might consider what was fit
to be done. Duke Hamilton told me, they were all so
drunk that day, that they were not capable of considering
any thing that was laid before them, and would hear of
nothing but the executing the law, without any relenting or
delay. So a proclamation was issued out, requiring all who Oct. r,
had their livings without presentations, and that had not
obeyed the late act, to give over all further preaching, or
serving the cure, and to withdraw from their parishes
immediately : and the military men that lay in the country
were ordered to pull them out of their pulpits, if they should
presume to go on in their functions. This was opposed
only by duke Hamilton, and sir James Lockhart, father to
sir William Lockhart. They represented, that the much
greater part of the preachers in these counties had come
into their churches since the year [i6]49; that they were
very popular men, both esteemed and beloved of their
people : it would be a great scandal if they should be turned
out, and none be ready to be put in their places : and it would
not be possible to find a competent number of well qualified
men to fill the many vacancies that this proclamation would
make. The earl of Middleton would hear of nothing but
the immediate execution of the law. So the proclamation
was issued out : and upon it above two hundred churches
were shut up in one day : and about one hundred and fifty
more were to be turned out for not obeying, and submitting
to, the bishops' summons to their synods T. All this was
done without considering the consequence of it, or com-
municating it to the other bishops. Sharp said to my self,
that he knew nothing of it, nor did he imagine that so rash
a thing could have been done till he saw it in print. He
was glad that this was done without his having any share
in it : for by it he was furnished with somewhat in which
he was no way concerned, upon which he cast the blame 155
of all the ill things that followed. Yet this was suitable

1 See the list in Wodrow, i. 324.

270

The History of the Reign

CHAP. IV. enough to a maxim that he and all that sort of people set
up, that the execution of laws was that by which all govern-
ments maintained their strength as well as their honour l.
The earl of Middleton was surprised at this extraordinary
submission of the presbyterians ; he had fancied that the
greatest part would have complied, and that some of the
more intractable would have done some extraordinary thing,
to have justified the severities he would have exercised in
that case ; and was disappointed both ways. Yet this
obedience of a party, so little accustomed to it, was much
magnified at court. It was said that all plied before him :
they knew he was steady : so they saw how necessary it
was not to change the management, if it was really intended
to preserve the church. Tarbot told me, that the king had
expressed to himself the esteem he had for Sheldon, upon
the account of the courage that he shewed [in] the debate
concerning the execution of the act of uniformity at the
day prefixed, which was St. Bartholomew's, when some
suggested the danger that might arise, if the act were
vigorously executed. From thence, it seems, the earl of
Middleton concluded, the zeal he shewed now would be so
acceptable, that all former errors would be forgiven, if he
went through with it ; as indeed he stuck at nothing. Yet
the clamour of putting several counties as it were under an
interdict, was very great. So all endeavours were used to
get as many as could be had to fill those vacancies ; and
among others, I was much pressed both by the earl of
Glencairn and the lord Tarbot, to go into any of the vacant
churches that I liked best. I was then but nineteen : but
there is no law in Scotland limiting the age of a priest.
And it was upon this account that I was let in so far into
the secret of all affairs : for they had such an imagination
of some service I might do them, that they treated me
with a very particular freedom and confidence. But I had
drunk in the principle of moderation so early, that, though
I was entirely episcopal, yet I would not engage with a body

1 Dunce, can there be a better maxim ? S.

of King Charles II. 271

of men that seemed to have the principles and tempers of CHAP. IV.
inquisitors in them, and to have no regard to religion in
any of their proceedings. So I stood upon my youth, and
could not be wrought on | to go to the west ; though the MS. 81.
earl of Glencairn offered to carry me with him under his
protection J. There was a sort of an invitation sent over
the kingdom, like a hue and cry, to all persons to accept
of benefices in the west. The livings were generally well
endowed, and the parsonage houses were well built, and in
good repair : and this drew many very worthless persons
thither, who had little learning, less piety, and no sort of !58
discretion. They came thither with great prejudices upon
them, and had many difficulties to wrestle with. The
former incumbents, who were for the most part Protesters,
were a grave, solemn sort of people ; their spirits were
eager, and their tempers sour : but this had an appearance
that created respect. They were related to the chief
families in the country, either by blood or marriage ; and
had lived in so decent a manner that the gentry paid great
respect to them. They used to visit their parishes much,
and were so full of the Scriptures, and so ready at extem-
pory prayer, that from that they grew to practise extern pory
sermons : for the custom in Scotland was after dinner or
supper to read a chapter in the Scriptures : and where they
happened to come, if it was acceptable, they of the sudden
expounded the chapter. They had brought the people to
such a degree of knowledge, that cottagers and servants

1 It is a little surprising that a I would tell the Bishop of Salisbury

youth of nineteen should have been a particular story, and enjoin him

let into the secret of all affairs. No secrecy, which he readily promised,

doubt the great moderation, and zeal but came two days after from London

for episcopacy, which he mentions to Windsor, to tell it her, which

with a singular degree of modesty, made her laugh very heartily. D.

which appeared early in him, and See Cockburn, Specimen of Remarks,

continued to his dying day, must 28, for an account of Burnet s

have been the inducements : besides forwardness at the age of twenty,

a notable faculty he had in keeping a But Cockburn himself was only ten

secret ; which I gave Queen Anne years old at the .time. Vindication

a proof of, by telling her beforehand of Dr. Burnet, 21.

272

The History of the Reign

CHAP. IV. could have prayed extempore. I have often overheard
them at it : and, though there was a large mixture of odd
stuff, yet I was astonished to see how copious and ready
they were in it. Their ministers generally brought them
about them on the Sunday nights, where the sermons were
talked over ; and every one, women as well as men, were
desired to speak their sense and their experience : and by
these means they had a comprehension of matters of
religion, greater than I have seen among people of that sort
any where. The preachers went all in one tract, of raising
observations of points of doctrine out of their texts, and of
proving these by reasons, and then of applying those, and
shewing the use that was to be made of such a point of
doctrine, both for instruction and terror, for exhortation
and comfort, for trial of themselves upon it, and for fur-
nishing them with proper directions and helps : and this
was so methodical, that the people grew to follow a sermon
quite through, in every branch of it. To this some added,
the resolving of doubts concerning the state they were in,
and their progress or decay in it ; which they called cases of
conscience : and these were taken from what their people
said to them at any time, very oft being under fits of
melancholy, or vapours and obstructions, which, though
they flowed from natural causes, were looked on as the
work of the Spirit of God, and a particular exercise to
them ; and they fed this disease of weak minds too much.
Thus they had laboured very diligently, though with a wrong
method and wrong notions. But as they had lived in great
familiarity with their people, and used to pray and talk oft
with them in private, so it can hardly be imagined to what
157 a degree they were loved and reverenced by them. They
kept scandalous persons under a severe discipline l : for
breach of sabbath, for an oath, or the least disorder in
drunkenness, persons were cited before the church session,

1 For the tyranny of the ministers
see the Records of the Synods of Fife,
St. Andrews, Lanark, and Cupar

(Abbotsford Club) ; the St. Andreivs
Kirk Register (Scottish Hist. Soc.) ;
and Buckle, Hist. Civiliz. iii. ch. iv.

of King Charles II. 273

that consisted of ten or twelve of the chief of the parish CHAP. IV.
who with the minister had this care upon them, and were
solemnly reproved for it : for fornication they were not only
reproved before these, but there was a high place in the
church, called the stool or pillar of repentance, where they
sat at the time of worship for three Lord's days, receiving l__
admonitions, and making professions of repentance on all
these days ; which some did with many tears, and serious
exhortations to all the rest, to take warning by their fall *.
For adultery they were to sit six months in that place, ^
covered with sackcloth. These things had a grave appear-
ance. Their faults and defects were not so conspicuous.
They had a very low measure of learning, and a narrow
compass in it. They were little men, of a very indifferent
size of capacity, and apt to fly out into great excesses of
passion and indiscretion. They were servile, and too apt
to fawn [upon] and flatter their admirers a. They were
affected in their deportment, and very apt to censure all
who differed from them, and to believe and report whatso-
ever they heard to their prejudice ; and they were super-
cilious and haughty. In their sermons they were apt to
enlarge on the present state of the times, and to preach
against the sins of princes and courts : a topic that naturally
makes men popular. It has an appearance of courage:
and the people are glad to hear those sins insisted on in
which they perceive they have no share, and to believe that
all the judgments of God come down by the means and
procurement of other men's sins. But their opinions about
the independence of the church and clergy on the civil

a especially the ladies, who were indeed their chief supports struck out.

1 This puts me in mind of a ridicu- be so,' said the earl, ' but I shall

lous story Duke Hamilton told me of always sit here for the future, be-

the old Earl of Eglington, who had cause it is the best seat in the kirk,

done penance for fornication, and and I do not see a better man to

the fourth Lord's day came, and sat take it from me.' D. See another

there again, which the minister per- case, even more absurd, at the time

ceiving, called to him to come down, of the ' engagement,' detailed in

for his penance was over. ' It may Cockburn's Specimen of Remarks, 52.
VOL. I. T

274 The History of the Reign

CHAP. IV. power, and their readiness to stir up the people to tumults
and wars, was that which begot so ill an opinion of them at
this time in all men, that very few who were not deeply
engaged with them in these conceits pitied them much,
under all the ill usage they now met with. I hope this is
no impertinent nor ingrateful digression; it is a just and
true account of these men and times, from which a judicious
reader will make good inferences. I will conclude it with
a very judicious answer that one of the wisest and best of
MS. 82. them, Colvil, that succeeded Leighton | in the headship of
the college of Edinburgh, made to the earl of Middleton,
when he pressed him in the point of defensive arms to tell
plainly his opinion, whether it was lawful to use them or
not. He said the question had been often put to him, and
he had always declined to answer it : but to him he plainly
158 said, he wished that kings and their ministers would believe
them lawful, and so govern as men that expected to be
resisted ; but he wished that all their subjects might believe
them unlawful, and so the world would be at quiet.

I do now return to end the account of the state of that
country at that time. The people were much troubled
when so many of their ministers were turned out. Their
ministers had, for some months before they were thus
silenced, been infusing this into their people, both in
public and private, that all that was designed in this
change of church government was to destroy the power of
godliness, and to give an impunity to vice ; that prelacy
was a tyranny in the church, set on by ambitious and
covetous men, who aimed at nothing but authority and
wealth, luxury and idleness; and that they intended to
encourage vice, that they might procure to themselves
a great party among the impious and immoral. The
people, thus prepossessed, seeing the earl of Middleton,
with all the train that followed him through those counties,
running into excesses of all sorts, and railing at the
very appearances of virtue and sobriety, were confirmed
in the belief of all that their ministers had told them.

of King Charles II. 275

What they had heard concerning Sharp's betraying those CHAP. IV.
who had employed him, and the other bishops, who
had taken the covenant, and had forced it on others, who
now preached against it, openly owning that they had in
so doing gone against the express dictate of their own
consciences, did very much heighten all their prejudices,
and fixed them so in them, that it was scarce possible to
conquer them afterwards. All this was out of measure
increased by the new incumbents, who were put in the
places of the ejected preachers ; who were generally very
mean and despicable in all respects. They were the worst
preachers I ever heard : they were ignorant to a reproach :
and many of them were openly vicious. They were a dis-
grace to orders, and the sacred functions ; and were indeed
the dreg and refuse of the northern parts. Those of them
who arose above contempt or scandal, were men of such
violent tempers, that they were as much hated as the
others were despised. This was the fatal beginning of
episcopacy in Scotland, of which few of the bishops
seemed to have any sense. Fairfoul, the most concerned,
had none at all : for he fell into a paralytic state, in which
he languished a year before he died. I have thus opened
the first settlement of things in Scotland : of which I myself
observed what was visible, and understood the secreter
transactions from those who had such a share in them,
that, as it was not possible for them to mistake them, so
I had no reason to think they intended to deceive or mis-
inform me.

CHAPTER V.

ENGLAND. THE INDEMNITY ACT. THE ROYAL
MARRIAGES. THE SETTLEMENT OF IRELAND.

I WILL in the next place change the climate, and give as 159
particular an account as I can of the settlement of England
both in church and state : which, though it will be perhaps

T 2,

276 The History of the Reign

CHAP. V. imperfect, and will in some parts be out of order, yet I am
well assured it will be found true ; having picked it up at
several times, from the earl of Lauderdale, sir Robert
Moray, the earl of Shaftesbury, the earl of Clarendon (the
son of the Lord Chancellor), the lord Holies, sir Harbottle
Grimston, who was the Speaker of the house of commons l,
under whose protection I lived nine years when I was
preacher a at the rolls, he being then master of the rolls.
From such hands I could not be misled, when I laid all
together, and considered what reason I had to make
allowances for the different accounts that a diversity of
parties and interests may lead men to give, they too
easily believing some things, and as easily rejecting others,
as they stood affected.

After the king came over, no person in the house of
commons had the courage to move the offering proposi-
tions for any limitation of prerogative, or the defining of
any doubtful points ; all was joy and rapture. If the king
had applied himself to business, and had pursued those
designs which he studied to retrieve all the rest of his
reign, when it was too late, he had probably in those first
transports carried every thing that he would have desired,
either as to revenue or power. But he was so given up to
pleasure, that he devolved the management of all his affairs
on the earl of Clarendon ; who, as he had his breeding in
the law, so he had all along declared himself for the ancient
liberties of England, as well as for the rights of the
crown. A domestic accident had happened to him, which
heightened this. He, when he began to grow eminent in
his profession, came down to see his aged father, a gentle-
MS. 83. man of Wiltshire : and, one day, as they | were walking in
the fields together, his father told him, that men of his

» substituted for chaplain.

1 Grimston was Speaker to the the commission to try the regicides

Convention Parliament only, but sat he was made Master of the Rolls in

throughout the reign for Colchester. Nov. 1660. See if. 380, 381.
He died Jan. 168^. After sitting on

of King Charles II. 277

profession did often stretch law and prerogative to the CHAP. V.
prejudice of the liberty of the subject, to recommend and
advance themselves : so he charged him, if ever he grew
to any eminence in his profession, that he should never
sacrifice the laws and liberties of his country to his own
interest, or to the will of a prince. He repeated this twice:
and immediately he fell into a fit of an apoplexy, of which
he died in a few hours. This the earl of Clarendon told 1632.
the lady Ranelagh, who put him often in mind of it : and
from her I had it 1. He resolved not to stretch the pre-
rogative beyond what it was before the wars, and would [
neither set aside the Petition of Right, nor endeavour to IGO
raise the courts of the Star-chamber or the High Com-
mission again, which could have been easily done if he had
set about it 2 : nor did he think fit to move for the repeal
of the act for triennial parliaments till other matters were
well settled 3. He took care indeed to have all the things
that were extorted by the Long Parliament from king
Charles I to be repealed ; and since the dispute of the
power of the militia was the most important, and the most
insisted on, he was very officiously earnest to have that
clearly determined for the future. But as to all the acts

1 Clarendon's father died at the Life of Clarendon, ii. 112.

age of seventy, on Michaelmas Day, 3 The bill for the repeal of the

1632. See the account in Clarendon, Triennial Act received the royal

Cont. i. 17, where, however, there is assent on April 5, 1664 ; cf. infra 354.

no mention of the anecdote in the text. It was accompanied by another Act,

2 Burnet's misconception of the providing that parliaments should not
conditions of the restoration in be intermitted for more than three
England is nowhere more strikingly years, but containing none of the
shown than in this sentence. It is safeguards against violation which
not credible that any such enterprise the former Act contained ; or, as
could have been successful, nor was Arlington describes it, ' another
it seriously contemplated. James II short one for the security of these
singles out Clarendon's sound sense ends, but by more dutiful means.'
in this matter for special rebuke Arlington's Letters (1701), ii. 19. A
from his point of view. Clarke's bill for unconditional repeal had
Life of James II, i. 393. The been brought in previously, 1662,
revival of the Star Chamber was when the compromise of April, 1664,
indeed suggested in 1662, but the was first suggested by Vaughan. Cal.
idea was at once dropped. Lister, St. P. Dom. 1661-2, 330.

278

The History of the Reign

CHAP. V. relating to property, or the just limitation of the pre-
rogative, such as the matter of the ship-money, the tonnage
and poundage, and the habeas corpus a, he did not touch
on these. And as for the standing revenue, i,2oo,oco/.
a year was all that was asked : and, though it was much
more than our kings had formerly, yet it was readily
granted. This was to answer all the ordinary expense of
the government. It was believed that if two millions had
been asked, he could have carried it. But he had no mind
to put the king out of the necessity of having recourse to
his parliament The king came afterwards to believe he
could have raised both his authority and his revenue much
higher, but that he had no mind to carry it further, or to
trust him too much. Whether all these things could have
been got at that time, or not, is above my conjectures.
But this I know, that all the earl of Clarendon's enemies
after his fall said, these things had been easily obtained, if
he had taken any pains in the matter, but that he himself
had no mind to it : and they infused this so into the king,
that he believed it, and hated him mortally on that account ;
and in his difficulties afterwards he said often, all these
might have been prevented, if the earl of Clarendon had
been true to him l.

The king had not been many days at Whitehall,
when one Venner 2, a violent fifth-monarchy man, who

a act struck out.

Jan. 7,
i66J.

1 See the memorial in the Record
Office (Col. Sf. P. Dom. 1660-1, 7),
quoted by Ranke, iii. 312. The sum
was quite inadequate to the current
expenditure and the payment of in-
terest upon the vast sums — amount-
ing to three millions — borrowed by
Charles before 1660. Welwood states
(Memoirs, no) that Southampton
urged Clarendon to secure a larger
revenue for the king, but was argued
out of the design by the latter ; and
that Charles heard of it. James sup-

ports this ; Clarke's Life of James II,
i- 393 > Macpherson, Orig. Pap. iii.
15 ; infra 287, note.

2 This was on Jan. 7, i66J, seven
months after the king's return.
Venner, who had previously headed
a plot for a rising of Fifth Monarchy
men, in April, 1657, had lately re-
turned from New England. He had
chosen Jan. 6, Twelfth Night, for the
attempt, because the king was away
from London, and it was hoped that
the guards at Whitehall, engaged in

of King Charles II. 279

thought it was not enough to believe that Christ was to CHAP. V.
reign on earth, and to put the saints in the possession of
the kingdom (an opinion that they were all unspeakably
fond of), but thought that the saints were to take the king-
dom themselves *. He gathered some of the most furious
of the party to a meeting in Coleman street. There they
concerted the day and the manner of their rising to set
Christ on his throne, as they called it. But withal they
meant to manage the government in his name ; and were
so formal, that they had prepared standards and colours
with their devices on them, and furnished themselves with
very good arms. But when the day came, there was but a
small appearance, not exceeding twenty. Howsoever they
resolved to venture out into the streets, and cry out, No iei
king but Christ. Some of them seemed persuaded that
Christ would come down, and head them. They scoured
the streets before them, and made a great progress. Some
were afraid, and all were amazed at this piece of extrava-
gance. They killed a great many, but were at last mastered
by numbers : and were all either killed, or taken and
executed. Upon this some troops of guards were raised,
and there was great talk of a design, as soon as the army
was disbanded, to raise a force that should be so chosen
and modelled that the king might depend upon it ; and
that it should be so considerable, that there might be no
reason to apprehend new tumults any more. The earl of
Southampton looked on a while: and when he saw how

the usual festivities, would be easily Quakers and other sectaries; the pro-
overpowered. See the account of the clamation against conventicles was
rising, differing from that in the text, enforced ; no one was permitted to
by Reresby, who was engaged in remain in London without taking the
its suppression ; Memoirs (ed. Cart- oath of allegiance, or to have arms
wright), 50. See also Clarke, Life of in the house unless he were in the
James II, i. 388 ; Baker's Chronicle, city militia.

757 > Cobbett's State Trials, vi. 114. x This wants grammar. S. A

There were fresh alarms in London comma at 'themselves,' and the omis-

in August. Hatton Correspondence sion of ' He,' makes the sentence

(Camd. Soc.), i. 22. The rising re- plain. Cf.Ludlow's conversation with

suited in the prisons being filled with Harrison in 1656; Memoirs, ii. 5-8.

280

The History of the Reign

CHAP. V. this design seemed to be entertained and magnified, he
entered into a very free expostulation with the earl of
Clarendon about it. He said, they had felt the effects of
a military government, though sober and religious, in
Cromwell's army : he believed vicious and dissolute troops
would be much worse : the king would grow fond of them,
and they would quickly become insolent and ungovernable :
and then such men as he was must be only instruments to
serve their ends. He said he could not look on, and see
the ruin of his country begun, and be silent : a white staff
would not bribe him. The earl of Clarendon was persuaded
he was in the right, and promised he would divert the king
from any other force than what might be decent to make
a shew with, and what might serve to disperse unruly mul-
titudes. The earl of Southampton said, if it went no
farther he could bear it ; but it would not be easy to fix
such a number as would please our princes, and not give
jealousy. The earl of Clarendon persuaded the king, that
it was necessary for him to carry himself with great caution
till the old army should be disbanded : for, if an ill humour
got among them, they knew both their courage and their
principles, which though it was for a while a little suppressed,
yet upon any just jealousy there might be great cause to

MS. 84. fear new and more violent disorders l. \ By these means the
king was so far wrought on, that there was no great occa-
sion given for jealousy. The army was to be disbanded,
but in such a manner, with so much respect, and so exact an
account of arrears 2 and gratuities, that it looked rather like
a dismissing them to the next opportunity, and a reserving

1 Clarendon, Cont. 18, 19.

2 The arrears were paid in full,
with an additional week's pay. Six-
teen infantry and thirteen cavalry
regiments, in all nearly 24,000 men,
with fifty garrisons, were disbanded.
The discontent which this aroused
resulted in a widespread conspiracy
for the overthrow of the government
and the murder of Monk, discovered

in September. Cal. St. P. Dom.
1660-1663 passim. More than one
proclamation was issued ordering
the disbanded soldiers to leave
London, where their presence was
regarded with great alarm ; cf. infra
326, note. Clarendon, Cont. 37, con-
firms Burnet's estimate of the high
quality and the self-respect of these
disbanded men.

of King Charles II. 281

them till there should be occasion for their service, than CHAP. V.
a breaking of them. They were certainly the bravest, the
best disciplined, and the soberest army that has been
known in these latter ages : every soldier was able to do
the functions of an officer. The court was at great quiet
when they got rid of so uneasy a burden as lay on them
from the fear of such a body of men. The guards, and 162
the new troops that were raised, were made up of such of
the army as Monk recommended and answered for \ And
with that his great interest at court came to a stand ; he
was little considered after that 2.

In one thing the temper of the nation appeared to be
contrary to severe proceedings : for, though the regicides were
at that time odious beyond all expression, and the trials 3
and executions of the first that suffered were run to by
vast crowds, and all people seemed pleased with the sight,
yet the odiousness of the crime grew at last to be so much
flatted by the frequent executions, and most of those who
suffered died with such firmness and shews of piety, justify-
ing all they had done, not without a seeming joy for their
suffering on that account, that the king was advised not to
proceed further, at least not to have the scene so near the
court as Charing-cross. It was indeed remarkable that
Peters, a sort of an enthusiastical buffoon preacher, a though
a very vicious man,a that had been of great use to Crom-
well, and had been outrageous in pressing the king's death
with the cruelty and rudeness of an inquisitor, was the man
of them all that was the most sunk in his spirit, and could

a interlined.

1 Monk's regiment of foot became either of a single person or of the
the Coldstream Guards, and a regi- people, collectively or through par-
ment of horse was raised ' under liament, could exercise any coercive
colour of being a guard to the King.' power over the Crown. The respon-
Ludlow, ii. 325 ; Mackinnon, Cold' sibility of ministers was urged with
stream Guards, vol. i. 98. equal force. ' If any other men do

2 See supra 178, note. wrong, though by his command,
8 The trial was made the occasion, they are punishable.' Cobbett's State

by Orlando Bridgeman, for emphasis- Trials, v. 989, 991 ; Ludlow, ii. 303.
ing the doctrine that no authority,

282

The History of the Reign

Oct. 13,

1660.

CHAP. V. not in any sort bear his punishment. He had neither the
honesty to repent of it, nor the strength of mind to suffer
as all the rest of them did. He was observed all the while
to be drinking some cordials to keep him from fainting1.
Harrison was the first that suffered. He was a fierce and
bloody enthusiast ; and it was believed, that while the army
was in doubt whether it was fitter to kill the king privately
or to bring him to an open trial, that he offered, if a private
way was to be settled on, to be the man that should do it.
So he was begun with. But, how reasonable soever this
might be in it self, it had a very ill effect : for he was a man
of great heat and resolutfon, fixed in his principles, and so
persuaded of them, that as he had never looked after any
interests of his own, but had opposed Cromwell when he
set up for himself, so he went through all the indignities
and severities of the execution, in which the letter of the
law in cases of treason was punctually observed, with
a calmness, or rather a cheerfulness, that astonished the
spectators 2. He spoke very positively that what they had
done was the cause and work of God, which he was confi-
dent God would own, and raise it up again, how much so-
ever it suffered at that time. Upon this a report was
spread, and generally believed at that time, that he said he
himself should rise again : though the party denied that,
and reported the words as I have set them down. One
person escaped, as was reported, merely by his vices:

1 Peters was a man of great ner-
vous sensibility. Once, we read, ' he
was so schooled by the Protector
that it put him into a high fever,
which soon after turned into a down-
right frenzy. Nothing would do
until the Protector went to see how
he did, which set him pretty right
again.' Fleming Papers, 1656, Maya;
H. M. C. Rep. xii, App. vii. 22 ;
British Museum Catalogue of Prints
and Drawings, division i. satires i,
960-978. See the charges against
Peters in Ludlow, ii. 311, with a

short memoir of his earlier career.

2 ' He looking as cheerful as any
man could do in that condition.'
Pepys, Oct. 13, 1660. * He trembled
much, . . . but excused it by the ill
usage he had in Newgate since his
condemnation.' H. M. C. Rep. v.
157, 207. See Firth 'sLife of Harrison ;
American Antiquarian Society, April
26, 1893 ; and Diet. Nat. Biog.
6 Dying under a hardness of heart
that created horror in all who saw
him,' was Nicholas's account. CaL
St. P. Dom. 1660-1, 312.

of King Charles II. 283

Henry Marten, who had been a most violent enemy to CHAP. V.
monarchy, but all that he moved for was upon Roman or 16g
Greek principles. He never entered into matters of reli-
gion, but on design to laugh both at them and at all
morality ; for he was both an impious and vicious man,
and now in his imprisonment he delivered himself up unto
vice and blasphemy. It was said that this helped him to
so many friends, that upon that very account he was
spared 1. John Goodwin and Milton 2 did also escape all
censure, to the scandal of all people. Goodwin had so
often not only justified but magnified the putting the king
to death, both in his sermons and books, that few thought
he could have been either forgot or excused : for Peters
and he were the only preachers that spoke of it in that
strain. But Goodwin had been so zealous an Arminian,
and had sown such division among all the sectaries upon
these heads, that it was said this procured him friends.
Upon what account soever it was, he was not censured.
Milton had appeared so boldly, though with much wit, and
great purity and elegancy of his Latin style, against
Salmasius and others, upon that argument, and had dis-
covered so virulent a malice against the late king and all
the family, and against monarchy, that it was a strange
omission if he was forgot, and an odd strain of clemency
if it was intended he should be forgotten ; but he was
not excepted out of the act of indemnity3. And after-

1 He was kept in confinement from the Bodleian Library and burnt,

until his death, first at Berwick, Clarke, Life of Anthony Wood. On

then at Windsor — where, however, August 13, 1660, Charles issued a

he was ' an eyesore to His Majesty ' proclamation calling in all copies of

— and lastly at Chepstow. He Milton's Iconoclastes and Pro Populo

died there, September 9, 1680. Anglicano Defensto, together with

See Parl. History iv. 226 ; Diet. Nat. Goodwin's Obstructors of Justice.

Biog. Masson, Life of Milton, vi. 181.

a See the debate, Dec. 17, 1660; 3 His life was spared by the means

Parl. Hist. iv. On June 16, 1660, of the famous Sir William Davenant,

the works of both Milton and Good- whose life he had saved under the

win, with those of many other anti- former powers. O. But see Masson,

monarchical writers, and Baxter's Life of Milton, vi. 187, whence it

Holy Commonwealth, were taken appears that Milton's escape was

284

The History of the Reign

CHAP. v. wards he came out of his concealment, and lived many
years, much visited by all strangers, and much admired by
all at home for the poems he writ, though he was then
blind ; chiefly that of Paradise a Lost a, in which there is
a nobleness both of contrivance and execution, that,
though he affected to write in blank verse without rithm,
and made many new and rough words, yet it was esteemed
the beautifulest and perfectest poem that ever was writ,
at least in our language. But as the sparing these persons
was much censured, so on the other hand the putting
Sir Henry Vane to death was as much blamed l : for the
declaration from Breda being full for an indemnity to all
except the regicides, he was comprehended in that ; since,
though he was for changing the government, and deposing
MS. 85. | the king, yet he did not approve of the putting him to
death, nor of the force put on the parliament, but did for
some time, while these things were acted, withdraw from
the scene 2. This was so represented by his friends, that
an address was made by both houses on his behalf, to which
the king gave a favourable answer, though only in general
words. So he reckoned that he was safe 3 ; that being

a interlined.

probably due to the action of Annes-
ley, Morrice, and Clarges.

1 Upon the judicial murder of Vane
in 1662, see Hallam, Const. Hist. ii. 326
(sm. ed.) ; Ranke, iii. 376 ; Cobbett's
State Trials, vi. 119; and Forster's
Life of Vane, 224. For the discredit-
able letter of the king, in which he
presses for Vane's death, l if we can
honestly put him out of the way,'
see also infra 286, note.

2 ' His hand was proved to a war-
rant issued out to the officers of the
navy to put the fleet in readiness, on
that very 3oth of January, 1648, on
which the king was murdered. He
was proved also to be an acting
member in the rebels' council of

state of the isth of February, and
the 23rd of March following : and
it was proved that he continued to
act in their councils and armies until
the year 1659 inclusive.' Salmon's
Examination, i. 507. R.

3 So did everybody at that time,
and it was so designed : it was a
medium to accommodate the differ-
ence between the two houses, upon
his case. The commons had ex-
pressly provided for the sparing of
his life. \_Parl Hist. iv. 68.] The
lords disagreed to that [id. 91], and
the commons only yielded upon the
proposal of this joint address [id.
109]. The words of the address, or
rather petition, were, ' That, as his

of King Charles II. 285

equivalent to an act of parliament, though it wanted the CHAP. V.
necessary forms. Yet the great share he had in the
attainder of the earl of Strafford, and in the whole turn of 164
affairs to the total change of government, but above all the
great opinion that was had of his parts and capacity to
embroil matters again, made the court think it necessary
to put him out of the way1. He was naturally a very
fearful man, as one who knew him well told me, and gave
me eminent instances of it. He had a head as darkened in
his notions of religion, as his mind was clouded with fear 2 :
for though he set up a form of religion in a way of his own,
yet it consisted rather in a withdrawing from all other forms
than in any new or particular opinions or forms ; from which
he and his party were called seekers, and seemed to wait
for some new and clearer manifestations. In these meet-
ings he preached and prayed often himself, but with so
peculiar a darkness, that though I have sometimes taken
pains to see if I could find out his meaning in his books,
yet I could never reach it ; and since many others have
said the same, it may be reasonable to believe he hid some-
what that was a necessary key to the rest. His friend told
me he leaned to Origen's notion of an universal salvation
of all, both the devils and the damned, and to the doctrine
of pre-existence. When he saw his death was designed, he

majesty had declared he would pro- He lived several years afterwards

ceed only against the immediate in prison, and died a papist. O.

murderers of his father, they (the Cf. supra 154. There is no evidence

lords and commons) not finding Sir for the truth of this last statement

Henry Vane or Colonel Lambert beyond Onslow's assertion,

to be of that number, are humble 1 Bail) ie says in his Letters, iii. 471,

suitors to his majesty, that if they ' They speak of Sir Henry Vane and

shall be attainted, yet execution as Lambert as to be tried for their lives,

to their lives may be remitted ' [id. They are two of the most dangerous

119]. The king's answer, as reported men in England. Their execution

by the Lord Chancellor, was, ' That will be well enough taken by all

his majesty grants the desires in the generally, yea, though solicitor St.

said petition.' It is true, in the next Johns should be added to them.'

parliament, there was an address to This language is of course natural in

prosecute them [C.J., July i, 1661]. the mouth of a zealous presbyterian.

Lambert was attainted as well as Sir 2 See Clarendon, Rebellion, iii. 34 ;

Henry Vane, but his life was spared. vii. 267.

286

The History of the Reign

1662.

CHAP. V. composed himself to it, with a resolution that surprised all
who knew how little of that was natural to him. Some
instances of this were very extraordinary, though they

June 14, cannot be mentioned with decency 1. He was beheaded
on Tower-Hill, where a new and very indecent practice was
begun. It was observed that the dying speeches of the
regicides had left impressions on the hearers that were not
at all to the advantage of the government. So strains of
a peculiar nature being expected from him, to prevent that,
drummers were placed under the scaffold, who, as soon as
he began to speak of the public, upon a sign given, struck
up with their drums. This put him in no disorder. He
desired they might be stopped, for he understood what was
meant by it. Then he went through his devotions. And,
as he was taking leave of those about him, he happening
to say somewhat with relation to the times, the drums
struck up a second time : so he gave over, and died with
so much composedness that it was generally thought
the government had lost more than it had gained by his
death 2.

1 His lady conceived of him the
night before his execution. S. He
cohabited with his lady the night
before he was executed, and declared
he had done so, next morning; for fear
any reflection should be made upon
her, if she proved with child : which
occasioned an unlucky jest when his
son was made a Privy Counsellor
with Father Peters in King James's
reign. The Earl of Dorset said, he
believed his father got him after his
head was off. D. Cole, in a MS.
note, relates, on the information of
Speaker Onslow, that this son of Sir
Henry Vane was remarkable for
absence of mind in company, and
that, when he was abroad, being
asked whether he was the son born
after his father's death, he answered,
' No, it was my elder brother ' ;
thinking, it is supposed, on the cir-

cumstance of his brother's having
attended on his father at his execu-
tion. R. See Pepys, June 14, 1662.

2 ' Hamton courte, Saturday,
two in the afternoon.

* The relation that has been made
to me of Sir H. Vane's carriage yester-
day in the hall, is the occasion of
this letter, which, if I am rightly
informed, was so insolent, as to
justyfy all he had done ; acknow-
ledgeing no supreame power in Eng-
land, but a parliament : and many
things to that purpose. You have
had a true accounte of all, and if he
has given new occasion to be hanged,
certaynly he is too dangerous a man
to lett live, if we can honestly put
him out of the way. Thinke of this,
and give me some accounte of it to-
morrow, till when I have no more
to say to you. C.' Indorsed in Lord

of King Charles II.

287

The act of indemnity passed with very few exceptions ; CHAP. V.
at which the cavaliers were highly dissatisfied, and made AtJ ag
great complaints of it 1. In the disposal of offices and places, 1660.
as it was not possible to gratify all, so there was little
regard had to men's merits or services. The king was
determined to most of these by the cabal that met at 165
a mistress Palmer's lodgings a. And though the earl of
Clarendon did often prevail with the king to alter the
resolutions taken there, yet he was forced to let a great
deal go that he did not like. He would never make appli-
cations to b mistress Palmer b, nor let any thing pass the
seal in which she was named 2, as the earl of Southampton

a substituted for the mistresses .

b substituted for the mistress.

Clarendon's hand, The King, ^th
June.

Sir Henry Vane was beheaded
that day sennight, viz. I4th of June,
1662. See among the State Trials,
that of Sir Henry Vane, especially the
latter end of what is printed there.
i6th of April, 1766.

The above letter I had copied from
the original, which is in the posses-
sion of — (James West, of Covent
Garden, Esq.) and which I saw, the
24th of June, 1759. Arthur Onslow.

I find this letter is lately printed
in Dr. Harris's Account of King
Charles the Second. But how he
came by it, I do not know. O. 'This
day I saw Sir Harry Vane die, who
showed very great boldness and in-
deed seditious impudence on the
scaffold, insomuch that to silence
him the noise of drums and trumpets
was five or six times used by the
command of the captain of the guard
at his execution, as he was making
his harangue.' Peter Pett to Bishop
Bramhall, Rawdon Papers, 166.
Ludlow, ii. 338.

1 Every political offence between
June i, 1637, and June 24, 1660, was
passed over. A free pardon for all but

the regicides had been determined
upon by Charles's advisers as early
as the beginning of 1657. Cal. Clar.
St. P. iii. 286 ; Lords Journals, xi.
240, 379 ; Clarendon, Cont. 130, 184,
285 ; and Pepys, March 20, 1669, from
which it appears that Southampton
urged the king not to pass the Act
until the prerogative was restored
and the revenue sufficiently raised to
enable him to dispense with parlia-
ments, but that Clarendon insisted
on the passing of the Act, in con-
fidence that ' he could have the
command of parliaments for ever.'
See the valuable account in Ludlow,
ii. 284 et seq., of the transactions
regarding the Act of Indemnity.

2 For which reason the' husband
was prevailed upon, though with
difficulty, to accept of an Irish patent
to be Viscount Castlemaine, that she
might be qualified to be a lady of the
bedchamber to the queen. O. See
Steinman's Barbara Duchess of Cleve-
land, 28. It is probable that the con-
nection with Charles began at the
Hague, whither she accompanied her
husband in 1 659. See supra} 168 note.
She was not created Duchess of
Cleveland until 1670; supra, 474.

288

The History of the Reign

CHAP. V. would never suffer her name to be in the treasury books.
Those virtuous ministers thought it became them to let the
world see that they did not comply with the king in his
vices ; but whether the earl of Clarendon spoke so freely
to the king about his course of life as was given out, I can-
not tell \ When the cavaliers saw they had not that share
March, in places that they expected, they complained of it so high,
that the earl of Clarendon, to excuse the king's passing
them by, was apt to beat down the value they set on their
services. This laid the foundation of an implacable hatred
in many of them, that was completed by the extent and
comprehensiveness of the act of indemnity, which cut off
their hopes of being reimbursed out of the fines, if not the
confiscations, of those who had during the course of the
wars been on the parliament side 2. It is true, the first
parliament, called by way of derogation the convention,
had been too much of that side not to secure themselves
and their friends. So they took care to have the most
comprehensive words put in it that could be thought of3.

Lord Clarendon has left behind him
a letter under the king's own hand,
in which he tells Clarendon, he will
never hope for happiness in this
world, or in the next, if he does not
carry his point, to make Mrs. Palmer
(afterwards Lady Castlemaine) a lady
of the queen's bedchamber; that who-
ever does anything to obstruct it, he
will be his enemy as long as he lives ;
and recommends it to him to bring
the queen to a compliance, as far as
in his power. Bowyer's Note on this
History. R. Clarendon, Cont. 359
et seq. The letter is printed in
Lister's Life of Clarendon, iii. 202.

1 See his own statement. Cont.
gig et seq.

2 See the 'Complaint of the Royal
and Loyal Party to the King/ August,
1660, Cal. St. P. Dom. 1660-1, 217,
and the ' Petition of the Distressed
Royalists,' March i, i66J, ParL Hist.
iv. 234, in consequence of which an

Act was passed in 1662 for dis-
tributing .£60,000 among distressed
cavaliers. Lords and Commons Jour-
nals for April and May, 1662. From
further notices and debates it is, how-
ever, clear that only a portion of
this sum ultimately reached those for
whom it was intended. The need
which existed for firmness on Claren-
don's part may be judged from the
' Petition of Twenty- five Gentlemen
Pensioners to the King,' ' for a pro-
mise to grant to them anything they
may discover.' This petition was
referred to the Attorney-General
' to know whether what was desired
may stand with law and the Act of
Indemnity.'

3 In the interval between the two
parliaments many persons obtained
particular pardons under the great
seal, for what was included in the
Act of Indemnity. My great grand-
father had one, which I have seen. O.

of King Charles II.

289

MS. 86.

But when the new parliament was called, a year after, in CHAP. V.
which there was a design to set aside the act of indemnity, Ma~~
and to have brought in a new one, the king did so positively
insist on his adhering to the act of indemnity, that the
design of breaking into it was laid aside l. The earl of
Clarendon owned it was his counsel. Acts or promises
of indemnity, he thought, ought to be held sacred : a fidelity
in the observation of them was the only foundation upon
which any government could hope, to quiet seditions or
civil wars : and if people once thought those promises were
only made to deceive them, without an intent to observe
them religiously, they would never for the future hearken
to any treaty. He often said it was the making those
promises had brought the king home. So that whole work,
from beginning to end, was wholly his. The angry men,
that were thus disappointed of all their hopes, made a jest
of the title of it, An act of oblivion \ and indemnity, and
said, the king had passed an act of oblivion for his friends
and of indemnity for his enemies ; and to load the earl of
Clarendon the more, it was given out that he advised the
king to gain his enemies, since he was sure of his friends by
their principles. With this he was often charged, though
he always denied it 2. Whether the king fastened it upon
him after he had disgraced him, to make him the more 166
odious, I cannot tell. It is certain the king said many very
hard things of him, for which he was much blamed : and in
most of them little believed.

It was natural for the king, upon his restoration, to look
out for a proper marriage. And it was soon observed that
he was resolved not to marry a protestant. He pretended

1 Parliament met on May 8, 1661.
' I am glad the king is honest
in spite of parliament. They
could not have done more to make
him loved and themselves hated.'
Edw. Butterfield to Sir R. Verney,
June 24, 1661, Verney MSS. See
Lords Journals, xi. 240, 379 ; Claren-

don, Cont. 130, 184, 285 ; and Pepys,
March 20, 1669.

2 He might deny the words, but
the practice was suitable to such
doctrine, and everybody knew there
was nothing done at that time but
by his advice. D.

VOL. I.

U

290

The History of the Reign

CHAP. V. a contempt of the Germans, and of the northern crowns 1.
France had no sister. He had seen the duke of Orleans'
daughters, and liked none of them. Spain had only two
infantas : and as the eldest was married to the king of
France, so the second was to go to Vienna. So the house
of Portugal only remained, to furnish him a wife, among
the crowned heads. Monk began to hearken to a motion
made him for this by a Jew, that managed the concerns of
Portugal 2, which were now given for lost, since they were
abandoned by France by the treaty of the Pyrenees ; in
which it appears, by cardinal Mazarin's letters, that he did
entirely deliver up their concerns ; which was imputed to
his desire to please the queen-mother of France, who, being a
daughter of Spain, owned herself still to be in the interests
of Spain in every thing in which France was not concerned,
for in that case she pretended she was true to the crown of
France. And this was the true secret of cardinal Mazarin's
carrying on that war so feebly as he did, to gratify the
queen-mother on the one hand, and his own base covetous-
ness on the other : for the less public expense was made,
he had the greater occasions of enriching himself, which
was all he thought on. The Portuguese being thus, as
they thought, cast off by France, were very apprehensive of

1 Shortly after the death of Crom-
well, Charles had made an offer of
marriage to the Princess Henrietta,
daughter of Frederick Henry of
Nassau, Prince of Orange ; but his
fortunes then seemed so doubtful
that her mother, the Princess
Dowager of Orange, declined it.
Carte's Ormond, iii. 673 ; Clarendon,
Cont. 152. After the Restoration he
had serious thoughts of an alliance
with Mazarin's niece, Hortense
Mancini, a match strongly urged by
the queen-mother. Upon this design
and the opposition which prevented
it, see Ranke, iii. 347. Carte, iv.
1 08, is responsible for the story of

Charles's reply to the proposal that
he should marry a German princess,
' Cod's fish ! they are all foggy, and
I cannot like any one of them for a
wife.'

2 There can be little doubt that
this Jew was Augustine Coronel
Chacon, one of the Spanish Crypto-
Jews under the Commonwealth, who
became wealthy by risky trafficking
with Royalists. At the Restoration
he was baptized, became financial
agent for Portugal, and was knighted
by Charles II. See Dr. Lucien
Wolfs very interesting paper,
Crypto-Jews under the Commonwealth,
1894.

of King Charles II. 291

falling under the Castilians,who, how weak soever they were CHAP. v.
in opposition to France, yet were like to be too hard for
them, when they had nothing else on their hand. So, vast
offers were made if the king would marry their infanta,
and take them under his protection. Monk was the more
encouraged to entertain the proposition, because in the
beginning of the war of Portugal, king Charles had entered
into a negotiation for a marriage between his son and this
infanta ; and the veneration paid his memory was then so
high, that everything he had projected was esteemed sacred.
Monk promised to serve the interests of Portugal : and
that was, as sir Robert Southwell ] told me, the first step
made in that matter. Soon after the king came into Eng-
land, an embassy of congratulation came from thence, with
orders to negotiate that business. The Spanish ambassador,
who had a pretension of merit from the king in behalf of 167
that crown, since they had received and entertained him at
Brussells when France had thrown him off, set himself
much against this match : and, among other things, affirmed
the infanta was incapable of having children. But this was
little considered 2. The Spaniards are not very scrupulous
in affirming any thing that serves their ends : and this

1 Southwell was Clerk to the Privy Portugal and thereby weakening
Council, and in Charles's confidence. Spain without an open violation of
He was Envoy Extraordinary to the terms of the Peace of the Pyre-
Lisbon in 1665. nees. For this object Charles had

2 The Portuguese marriage scheme already secretly received 200,000
was not a new one. As early as crowns out of 800,000 promised.
1645 Catherine's father, John of Louis's agents were the queen-
Braganza, had proposed it, and it mother, who came to England in
was alive in 1646 and 1647. The November, 1660, and La Bastide de
English alliance was always desired la Croix, a former agent between
by Portugal, and with especial Mazarin and Cromwell. Mignet,
urgency after the Peace of the Negotiations, d-c., i. 87 note ; Lister,
Pyrenees. Monk was sounded in iii. 516. The marriage was opposed
April, 1660, and the terms were to popular feeling in England, which
then practically agreed to (Echard, ran strongly in favour of Spain
31 ; Kennet, Register, 394). The against France. CaL St. P. Dom.
marriage was concluded in March, 1661-2, 100, 104, 105 ; Jusserand,
i66J, through French influence, as A French Ambassador at the Court of
offering a means of supporting CharlesII, 124. Clarendon, however,

U 2

292

The History of the Reign

CHAP. V. marriage was like to secure the kingdom of Portugal. So
it was no wonder that he opposed it : and little regard was
had to all that he said to break it.

At this time monsieur Fouquet was gaining an ascendant

in the counsels of France, cardinal Mazarin falling then into

March 9, a languishing, of which he died a year after. He sent one

66*' over to the king1 with a project of an alliance between

France and England. He was addressed first to the earl

NOV. 1660. of Clarendon, to whom he enlarged on all the heads of the

scheme he had brought, of which the match with Portugal

was a main article. And, to make all go down the better,

Fouquet desired to enter into a particular friendship with

the earl of Clarendon ; and sent him the offer of io,ooo/.

had acquired an extreme dislike of
Spain before the Restoration, and
was obviously in favour of the match.
Clarendon, Cont. 152 ; Memoires de
Louis XIV, i. 66-68. The Spanish
memorial against it is in Peck's De-
siderata Curiosa, 517. The Portu-
guese gave Tangiers, Bombay, free-
trade with the Brazils and the East
Indies, religious freedom for British
subjects in Portuguese territory, and
£500,000. Charles promised to
furnish them with 3,000 infantry and
1,000 horses, and to place 8 frigates
at their disposal. Laclede, Hist, de
Portugal, viii. 307. Monk, anxious
to see Cromwell's European policy
maintained, was also favourable.
Carte, Ormond, iv. 102. As For-
neron points out (Louise de Ke'roualle,
9) Louis failed in his intention of
securing a permanent influence over
Charles by this marriage, from the
nature and education of Catherine
of Braganza ; and this led to the
appointment, as it were, first of
Henrietta of Orleans, and, after her
death, of Louise de Keroualle, as
French agent, when it was clear
that the coarse and passionate
temper of Lady Castlemaine unfitted

her for such confidence. Catherine
was born in 1638 and died in 1670.
There is much curious evidence upon
the matter of the queen's incapacity
for child-bearing. See the article
upon her in the Diet. Nat. Biog.,
and infra, 307, note. For a refu-
tation of the scandalous accusation
against Clarendon, for which see
Reresby 53, that he brought about
the marriage with full knowledge of
the queen's incapacity, in the in-
terests of any children James might
have by his daughter, see Carte's
Ormond, iv. 105, and Clarke, Life of
James II, 394.

1 La Bastidede la Croix, mentioned
in the last note. He had letters of
credit to the amount of 500,000 livres
for bribery in England. Mignet,A^o-
ciations, &c., i. 87. Upon Clarendon's
dealings with him in 1661, see Rose's
Observations, &c.} 54. Mazarin died
March 9, 1661. Jusserand states that
drafts for a treaty of intimate union
and for the restoration of Catho-
licism abound in the French archives,
some by French and some by Eng-
lish hands. A. French Ambassador,
&c., 123 note.

of King Charles II. 293

and assured him of the renewing the same present every CHAP. V.
year. The lord Clarendon told him, he would lay all that
related to the king faithfully before him, and give him his
answer in a little time : but for what related to himself, he
said he served a great and bountiful master, who knew well
how to support and reward his servants : he would ever
serve him faithfully ; and, because he knew he must serve
those from whom he accepted the hire, therefore he rejected
the offer with great indignation J. He laid before the king
the heads of the proposed alliance, which required much
consultation ; but in the next place he told both the king
and his brother what had been offered to himself. They
both advised him to accept of it. Why, said he, have you
a mind that I should betray you ? The king answered, he
knew nothing could corrupt him. Then, said he, you know
me better than I do my self : for if I take the money, I will
find the sweet of it, and will study to have it continued to
me by deserving it. He then told them how he had rejected
the offer, and very seriously warned the king of the danger
he saw he might fall in, if he suffered any of those who
served him, to become pensioners of other princes : those
presents were made only to bias them in their affairs, and
to discover secrets by their means : and the taking money
would soon grow to a habit, and spread like an infection
through the whole court.

As the motion for the match with Portugal | was carried MS. 87.
on, an incident of an extraordinary nature happened in the 168
court. The earl of Clarendon's daughter, being with child,
and near her time, called upon the duke of York to own his
marriage with her. She had been maid of honour to the
princess royal : and the duke, who was even to his old age
of an amorous disposition, tried to gain her to comply with
his desires. She managed the matter with so much address,
that in conclusion he married her. Her father did very

3 Jusserand, A French Ambassa- Cominges, the French Ambassador,
dor, &€., 126, gives an interesting with the calculated coldness and
account of the impatience of De delay of Clarendon.

294

The History of the Reign

CHAP. V. solemnly protest, that he knew nothing of the matter till it
broke out \ and then the duke thought to have shaken her
from claiming it by great promises, and as great threatenings'2.
But she was a woman of a high spirit. She said she was
his wife, and would have it known that she was so ; let him
use her afterwards as he pleased. Many discourses were

set about upon this occasion.

1 Lord Shaftesbury told Sir Mich.
Wharton, from whom I had it, that
some time before the match was
owned, he had observed a respect
from Lord Clarendon and his lady
to their daughter, that was very un-
usual from parents to their children,
which gave him a jealousy she was
married to one of the brothers, but
suspected the king most. D. As far
as Lord Clarendon's lady is concerned
in this story, Sir Michael Wharton's
veracity is established by Locke's
Memoirs of the Earl of Shaftesbury,
See Locke's Works, vol. iii. 493. R.
James states explicitly that he fell in
love with Anne Hyde at Paris, in
1657^ that after the Restoration
Charles at first refused his consent,
but gave way finally, and that they
were then privately married. Clarke,
Life of James, i. 387. The marriage
took place on Sept. 3, 1660, at
Clarendon's residence, Worcester
House (see James's own deposition,
Fairfax Correspondence, Civil Wars, ii.
273) ; and the first child, a boy, who
died May 5, 1661, was born in Octo-
ber. Pepys, Oct. 24, 1660. A secret
promise of marriage had been given
as early as Nov. 24, 1659. (Clarke's
Life of James, 387; Pepys, Feb. 23,
i66f ; Anne Hyde's deposition, Fair-
fax Correspondence, Civil Wars, ii.
272). From Evelyn, Oct. 7, 1660, it ap-
pears that the passionate opposition
of the queen-mother was waived on
consideration of Clarendon arranging
for the payment of her debts. The

But the king ordered some

marriage was not publicly owned
until, or just before, Dec. 13, 1660.
See the letter of Nicholas to Bennet
of that date, Cal. St. P. Dom. 1660-1,
412; Evelyn, Dec. 23, 1660. Clarendon
(Cont. 51 etseq.*} states that, while fully
cognizant of all the former steps, he
was ignorant of the actual celebration
of the marriage until some time sub-
sequent ; but it is quite clear, from his
own words and from James's state-
ment, that he knew it would take
place. For the subsequent scandal,
for which Sir Charles Berkeley was
responsible, and under cover of which
James— according to Clarendon (but
see following note) — endeavoured to
disavow the marriage, see Claren-
don, Cont. 62. See also MarvelTs
savage lampoons upon the Duchess
in Last Instructions to a Painter ; A
Historical Poem: and State Poems
(1710),!. 95. Upon James's promise,
in the autumn of 1659, to marry Lam-
bert's daughter, see Ranke, iii. 340,
341, and Diet. Nat. Biog.

2 This can hardly be possible,
since there were unimpeachable
witnesses of the marriage ; Ossory,
Ormond's son, who gave the bride
away, was one. See his deposition,
H. M. C. Rep. ix. 445. See also
the Fairfax Correspondence, quoted
above, which contains the deposi-
tions, dated Feb. 18, i66£, of Ellen
Stroud the duchess's servant, and
Dr. Crowther the clergyman who
married them, besides those of James,
Ossory, and Anne herself.

of King Charles II. 295

bishops and judges to peruse the proofs she had to produce : CHAP. v.
and they reported that, according to the doctrine of the Fe^~7^6
Gospel, and the law of England, it was a good marriage.
So it was not possible to break it, but by trying how far the
matter could be carried against her for marrying a person
so near the king without his leave. The king would not
break with the earl of Clarendon : and so he told his
brother, he must drink as he brewed, and live with her whom
he had made his wife. All the earl of Clarendon's enemies
rejoiced at this : for they reckoned that how much soever
it seemed to raise him at present, yet it would raise envy so
high against him, and make the king so jealous of him, as
being more in his brother's interests than in his own, that
they looked on it as that which would end in his ruin.
And he himself thought so, as his son told me : for, as
soon as he knew of it, and when he saw his son lifted
up with it, upon that he protested to him that he knew
nothing of the matter till it broke out ; but added, that
he looked on it as that which must be all their ruin sooner
or later.

Upon this I will digress a little, to give an account of the
duke's character, whom I knew for some years so particu-
larly, that I can say much upon my own knowledge. He
was very brave in his youth1 , and so much magnified by
monsieur Turenne, that, till his marriage lessened him, he
really clouded the king, and passed for the superior genius.
He was naturally candid and sincere, and a firm friend, till
affairs and his religion wore out all his first principles and
inclinations. He had a great desire to understand affairs :
and in order to that he kept a constant journal of all that
passed, of which he shewed me a great deal. The duke of 169
Buckingham gave me once a short but severe character of
the two brothers ; it was the more severe, because it was
true. The king could see things if he would, and the duke
would see things if he could. He had no true judgment,

1 This courage was equally con- reign, at Lowestoft in 1665 and
spicuous in the naval wars of this at Southwold Bay in 1672.

296 The History of the Reign

CHAP. V. and so was soon determined by those whom he trusted :
but he was obstinate against all other advices. He was
bred with high notions of the kingly authority, and laid it
down for a maxim, that all who opposed the king were
rebels in their hearts. He was perpetually in one amour
or other, without being very nice in his choice : so that the
king said once, he believed his brother had his mistresses
given him by his priests to do penance. He gave me this
account of his changing his religion. When he escaped
out of the hands of the earl of Northumberland, who had
the charge of his education trusted to him by the parlia-
ment, and had used him with great respect, all due care was
taken as soon as he got beyond sea to form him to a
strict adherence to the church of England : among other
things, much was said of the authority of the church, and
of the traditions from the apostles in support of epis-
copacy : so that when he came to observe that there was
more reason to submit to the catholic church than to
one particular church, and that other traditions might
be taken on her word, as well as episcopacy was received
among us, he thought the step was not great but very
reasonable to go over to the church of Rome : and doctor
Stewart1 having taught them to believe a real but un-
conceivable presence of Christ in the sacrament, he thought
that went more than half way to transubstantiation. He
said that a nun that advised him to pray every day, that
if he was not in the right way, that God would set him

1 Dr. Richard Stewart was Pre- chapel — which office he held under

bendary of Worcester, 1629, and Charles II, until his death in 1651 —

Provost of Eton in 1639 : during and in 1648 had the duty of in-

the Civil War he was nominally structing the Prince of Wales in all

appointed Dean of St. Paul's and matters relating to the Church (id.

of Westminster. In 1645, while xi. 36; xiii. 133). In 1650 he was

Clerk of the Closet to Charles I, he one of the Duke of York's Cabinet

was one of the Commissioners at Council, and, according to Sir G.

Uxbridge, and had the task of Radcliffe, was ' the heifer the queen

answering Henderson (Clarendon, plowes with/ Nicholas Papers, i.

Rebellion, viii. 226). In 1646 he 195, 197 ; Cat. Clar. St. P. i, ii.
was made dean of the king's

of King Charles II. 297

right, did make a great impression on him ; but he never CHAP. V.
told me when or where he was reconciled 1. He suffered
me to say a great deal to him on all these heads. I shewed
him the difference between submission and obedience in
indifferent things, and an implicit submission from the
belief of infallibility. I also shewed him the difference
between a speculation of a mode of Christ's presence,
when it rested in an opinion, and an adoration founded
on it. Though the opinion of such a presence was wrong,
there was no great harm : but the adoration of an undue
object was idolatry. He has suffered me to talk much and
often to him on these heads ; but I plainly saw it made
no impression, and all that he seemed to intend by it was
| to make use of me as an instrument to soften the aversion MS. 88.
that people began to be possessed with to him. He
was naturally eager and revengeful : and was much against
the taking off any that set up in an opposition to the
measures of the court, and who by that means grew 170
popular in the house of commons. He was for rougher
methods. He continued for many years dissembling his
religion 2, and a seemed zealous for the church of England :
but it was chiefly on design to hinder all propositions
that tended to unite us among ourselves. He was a
frugal prince, and brought his court into method and
magnificence: for he had ioo,ooo/. a year allowed him.

& always struck out.

1 Before the Restoration he had especially the graphic letters from

zealously seconded the king's en- Lord Hatton and Sir G. Ratcliffe to

deavours to prevent the then medi- Nicholas, printed in the Nicholas

tated perversion of their brother the Papers, vol. ii.

Duke of Gloucester ; but it appears 2 Reresby asserts (Memoirs, ed.

from Pepys, Feb. 18, 1661, that so Cartwright, 1875, 81) that until 1670

early as the year after the king's James had not been generally

return, the Duke of York was con- suspected of Popery. His formal

sidered to be a professed friend to conversion took place in 1669, after

the Roman Catholics. R. On the he had tried in vain to obtain a dis-

attempts to convert the Duke of pensation from the pope to conform

Gloucester, see Carte's Ormond, iii. to the Anglican Church. Clarke's

633-642 (Clar. Press) ; Cal. Clar. Life of James II, i. 441.
St. P. ii. 382, &c. ; iii. 325, &c., and

298

The History of the Reign

CHAP. V. He was made high admiral: and he came to understand
all the concerns of the sea very particularly. He had
a very able secretary about him, sir William Coventry :
a man of great notions and eminent virtues, the best
speaker in the house of commons, and capable of bearing
the chief ministry, as it was once thought he was very near
it1. The duke found all the great seamen had a deep
tincture from their education: they both hated popery
and loved liberty : they were men of severe tempers, and
kept good discipline. But in order to the putting the
fleet into more confident hands, the duke began a method
of sending pages of honour, and other young persons of
quality, to be bred to the sea 2. And these were put in
command, as soon as they were capable of it, if not
sooner. This discouraged many of the old seamen, when
they saw in what a channel advancement was like to go;
who upon that left the service, and went and commanded
merchantmen. By this means the virtue and discipline of
the navy is much lost. It is true we have a breed of many
gallant men a, who do distinguish themselves in action ;
but it is thought that the nation has suffered much by
the vices and disorders of those captains, who have risen
by their quality more than by merit or service.

The duchess of York was a very extraordinary woman.
She had great knowledge, and a lively sense of things.
She soon understood what belonged to a princess, and
took state on her, rather too much 3. She writ well ;
and had begun the duke's life, of which he shewed me
a volume ; it was all drawn from his journal : and he

a by this means struck out.

1 Cf. infra 478.

2 From the story in Pepys, June
27, 1662, James seems acquitted
of the blame of these appoint-
ments in the first instance. Cf. id.
Nov. 20, 1661 ; July 2, 1662 ; June
2, 1663 ; June 8, July 20, 1666, ' the

gentleman captains will undo us':
July 27, Oct. 20, 1666; Feb. 3 and
June 14, 1667 ; and see also Jusse-
rand, A French Ambassador, &c., 136.
3 Pepys, Jan. 27, 166^, describes
her interference in the Duke of
York's Council.

of King Charles II. 299

intended to have employed me in carrying it on J. She was CHAP. v.
bred to great strictness in religion, and practised secret
confession. Morley told me he was her confessor; she
began at 12, and continued under his direction, till,
upon her father's disgrace, he was put from the court.
She was generous and friendly ; but was too severe an
enemy 2.

The king's third brother, the duke of Gloucester, was of
a temper different from both his brothers. He was active
and loved business, apt to have particular friendships, and
had an insinuating temper, a which was generally very
acceptable.a The king loved him much better than the
duke of York. But he was uneasy when he saw there 171
was no post left for him, since Monk was general. So
he spoke to the earl of Clarendon, that he might be made
lord treasurer. But he told him, it was a post below his
dignity. He would not be put off with that : for he could
not bear an idle life, nor to see his brother at the head
of the fleet, when he had neither business nor dependence.
But the mirth and entertainments of that time raised his

blood so high, that he took the small-pox ; of which he Sept. ^,

1660.

a interlined.

1 See Horace Walpole, Royal and he believed it was not prudent, but
Noble Authors, 417, 418. she smelt so strong of her father's

2 Her marriage with the duke green bag, that he could not get the
created great uneasiness in the better of himself, whenever he had
royal family. The princess royal the misfortune to be in her presence,
could little bear the giving place The Queen-mother, who hated the
to one she thought she had chancellor, was with great difficulty
honoured very much in having ad- persuaded to see her [Clarendon,
mitted into her service, and avoided Cont. 59, &c.], and gave it for a reason
being in a room with her as much to induce the king to agree to the
as she could ; and the Duke of Princess Henrietta's marriage with
Gloucester could never be prevailed the Duke of Orleans, that she might
upon to show her any sort of civility. avoid being insulted by Hyde's
My grandfather (who loved him the daughter. D. Upon her practice
best of all his old master's children) of secret confession, and conversion
told him he feared it might prove to the Roman Catholic faith in 1670,
prejudicial to him if the king should see infra 556, and Fairfax Corres-
die without children : the duke said pondence, ii. 268.

3oo

The History of the Reign

1660.

CHAP. V. died 1, much lamented by all, but most particularly by the
king, who was never in his whole life seen so much troubled
as he was on that occasion. Those who would not believe
that he had much tenderness in his nature, imputed this
rather to his jealousy of the brother that survived, since
he had now lost the only person that could balance him.
Not long after him the princess royal died likewise of the

Dec. 24, small-pox ; but was not much lamented 2. She had lived
in her widowhood for some years with great reputation,
kept a decent court, and supported her brothers very
liberally ; and yet lived within bounds. But her mother,
who had the art of making herself believe any thing she
had a mind to, upon a conversation with the queen-
mother of France, fancied the king of France might be
inclined to marry her. So she writ to her to come to
Paris. On that, she made an equipage far above what she
could support. So she run herself into debt, sold all her
jewels, and some estates that were in her power as her
son's guardian ; and was not only disappointed of that
vain expectation, but fell into some misfortunes that lessened
the reputation she had formerly lived in 3. Upon her death,

1 Henry of Oatlands, born July 3,
1639, died Sept. T%, 1660, 'by the
great negligence of the doctors'
Pepys says. Clarendon had a very
high opinion of ' the sweete Duke of
Gloucester.' Clar. St. P. 1659. He
was remarkable for his knowledge
of languages (Macpherson, Orig.
Pap. iii. 1 8), and displayed personal
courage at the battle of the Dunes
in 1658. Marvell hints, without any
justification, that he died by foul
means. An Historical Poem, 18, &c.

2 Mary, eldest sister of Charles II,
widow of William II, Prince of
Orange (who died in 1650; cf. infra
569), and mother of William III.

3 Particularly in relation to young
Harry Jermyn, nephew to the Earl
of St. Albans, who left him his heir ;
he was after created Lord Dover by

King James. At the Revolution he
was more favoured by King William
than any Roman Catholic that had
been in King James's service ; in
regard, as was thought, to the favour
he had been in with his mother, who
was suspected to have been married
to him ; which King William was
willing to have believed (rather than
worse), though it was not proper for
her to own the marriage. And the
late behaviour of her mother with
the Earl of St. Albans, and her aunt
with the Earl of Craven, seemed to
countenance, if not justify, such a
management. D. His lordship means
the private marriages said to have
taken place between these parties.
Pepys, Dec. 21, 1660, mentions the
current report of the Princess of
Orange's marriage with Jermyn. R.

of King Charles II. 301

it might have been expected, both in justice and gratitude, CHAP. V.
that the king would in a most particular manner have
taken her son, the young prince of Orange, into his pro-
tection \ But he fell into better hands: for his grand-
mother 2 became his guardian, and took care both of his
estate and his education.

Thus two of the branches of the royal family were cut off
• soon after the restoration 3 ; and so little do the events
of things answer the first appearances, that a royal family of
three princes and two princesses, all young and graceful
persons, that promised a numerous issue, did moulder
away so fast, that now, while I am writing, all is reduced
to the person of the queen, and the duchess of Savoy4.
And as the king had a very numerous spurious issue,
though none by his queen, so the duke had by both his
wives, and some | irregular amours, a very numerous issue ; MS. 89.
and the present queen has had a most fruitful marriage as
to issue, though none of them survive. The princess Hen- 172
riette was so pleased with the diversions of the French
court, that she was glad to go thither again to be married
to the king's brother5, a poor-spirited and voluptuous prince,
monstrous in his vices, and effeminate in his luxury in more

1 In her will, which may be seen in 2 Amelia de Solms, widow of

Peck's Desiderata Curiosa, 515, she Frederick Henry. Pontalis, Jean de

besoughtCharlestotaketheguardian- Witt, i. 59.

ship; and he appointed a commission, 3 Elizabeth of Bohemia died Feb.

presided over by Clarendon, to watch 23, 1662.

the prince's interests. Pontalis, Jean 4 Namely, Queen Anne, and this

de Wittj i. 272. He is said to have duchess, who was daughter of

afterwards given the guardianship to Henrietta, Duchess of Orleans, the

the Princess Dowager and the Elector youngest daughter of King Charles

of Brandenburg. AmbassadesetNego- the First: the bishop setting aside

nations de M. le Comte d'Estrades the other children of the Duke of

(Amsterdam, 1718), 203. Little credit York, then alive at the time of his

can be given to the statements in this writing this part of his history. R.

work. Some of the documents See note, infra 358.

quoted previous to 1660 are un- 5 Philip, Duke of Orleans. The

doubtedly forgeries, and those deal- courage, to which Burnet alludes,

ing with subsequent events would was very questionable. See Mrs.

need collation with the MSS. in Ady's 'Madame,' Memoirs of Hen-

the French Foreign Office. rietta, Duchess of Orleans,

302

The History of the Reign

CHAP. v. senses than one. He had not one great or good quality, but
courage : so that he became both odious and contemptible.
As the treaty with Portugal went on, France did engage
in the concerns of that crown. They had by treaty pro-
1659. mised the contrary to the Spaniards 1 ; so to excuse their
perfidy, count Schomberg2, a German by birth arid a
Calvinist by his religion, was ordered to go thither, as one
prevailed with by the Portugal ambassador, and not as
sent over by the orders of the court of France. He passed
through England to concert with the king the matters of
Portugal, and the supply that was to be sent thither from
England. He told me, the king had admitted him into
great familiarities a at Paris. He had known him first at
the Hague, for he was the prince of Orange's particular
favourite 3 ; but had so great a share in the last violent
actions of his life in seizing the states, and in the attempt
upon Amsterdam, that he left the service upon his death ;
and gained so great a reputation in France, that, after the
prince of Conde and Turenne, he was thought the best
general they had. He had much free discourse with the
king, though he found his mind was so turned to mirth and
pleasure that he seemed scarce capable of laying any thing
to heart. He advised him to set up for the head of the
protestant religion : for though he said to him he knew he had
not much religion, yet his interests led him to that. It
would keep the princes of Germany in a great dependence
on him, and make him the umpire of all their affairs ; so
it would procure him great credit with the Huguenots of
France, and keep that crown in perpetual fear of him.
He advised the king to employ the military men that had
served under Cromwell, whom he thought the best officers

a with him struck out.

1 At the Peace of the Pyrenees,
1659.

2 Frederick Schomberg, more pro-
perly Schoenberg. He was born in
1618 and killed at the battle of the
Boyne, July n, 1690. His father

.was Hans Meynard Schcenberg,
who died governor of Juliers and
Cleves ; his mother was an English-
woman, Anne Dudley, daughter of
Edward, Earl of Dudley. Cf. f. 345.
3 Cf. Pontalis, Jean de Witt, i. 51.

of King Charles II. 303

he had ever seen : and he was sorry to see they were dis- CHAP. v.
missed, and that a company of wild young men were those
the king relied on 1. But that he pressed most on the king
as the business then in agitation, was concerning the sale
of Dunkirk. The Spaniards pretended it ought to be re-
stored to them, since it was taken from them by Cromwell,
when they had the king and his brothers in their armies :
but that was not much regarded. The French pretended
that by their agreement with Cromwell he was only to
hold it till they had repayed the charge of the war2:
therefore they, offering to lay that down, ought to have
the place delivered to them. The king was in no sort
bound by this. So the matter under debate was, whether
it ought to be kept or sold ? The military men, who
were believed to be corrupted by France, said, the place
was not tenable ; that in time of peace it would put the 173
king to a great charge, and in time of war it would not
quit the cost of keeping it 3. The earl of Clarendon said,
he understood not those matters, but appealed to Monk's
judgment, who did positively advise the letting it go for
the sum that the French offered 4. To make the business

1 See supra 298, note. trades, 167. On June 29, 1662,

2 There was no such agreement. the discussion was, according to
Cromwell had demanded the perma- the same doubtful authority, re-
nent possession of Dunkirk from the sumed in a letter from Clarendon to
first. D'Estrades, and Ballings was sent

3 See the Parl. Hist. iv. 266, for over from England ; and in reply to
a list of issues from the Treasury, a request of Charles, on July 27,
June 1663, from which it appears D'Estrades interrupted his journey
that the annual charge for Dunkirk to the Hague to come to England
was over £113,000. Lister, iii. 510. and discuss the question personally,

4 It is impossible to ascertain with id. 387 ; when Aubigny acted as in-
accuracy the responsibility to be terpreter between him and Claren-
attached to individuals regarding this don, id. 175. Regarding his own
transaction. It seems clear, however, share in the matter, Clarendon states
if any credit could be given to the that he took little part in the later
work quoted, supra 301 note, that discussions, but relied upon the
the matter was first opened from authority of Monk, Sandwich, and
the French side, in a conversation other experts ; that these, with the
between D'Estrades and Charles II, Duke of York and the secretaries,
on July 21, 1661 ; Ambassades et were unanimous in favour of giving
Negotiations de M. le Comte d'Es- up the place — the Earl of St Albans,

304

The History of the Reign

CHAP. v. go the easier, the king promised that he would lay up all
the money in the Tower, and that it should not be touched
but upon extraordinary occasions. Schomberg advised, in
opposition to all this, that the king should keep it ; for,
considering the naval power of England, it could not be
taken. He knew that, though France spoke big as if they
would break with England unless that was delivered up, yet
they were far from the thoughts of it. He had considered

for interested motives, being the sole
dissentient in the Council — and in-
deed that the cession had been
decided upon before he was con-
' suited. Clarendon, Cont, 455 ; Cob-
bett's State Trials, viii. 434. This,
however, must be contrasted with
the following passage, whatever
may be its worth, from D'Estrades,
under date August 17, 1662: 'A tout
cela le Chancelier ajouta, que la
pensee de ce Traite etait venue de
lui ; . . . qu'il etait seul dans ce
sentiment avec le roi et M. le Due
d'Yorck, et qu'il avait encore a
menager Monck, le grand Tresorier,
et Sandwich, lesquels il ne pouvait
esperer de gagner que par les grands
deniers qui en reviendraient au Roi.'
Ambassades, &c., 411. See also
Combe's Sale of Dunkirk (1728),
drawn chiefly from D'Estrades's
memoirs. For Sandwich's reasons
see Pepys, Oct. 27, 1662. The
feeling in the city was strongly
adverse : ' The merchants, howbeit,
are all of a flame,' H. M. C. Rep..yC\.
App. v. 10 ; Louis XIV states that
they offered large sums for the re-
tention ofthe place. Cf. Combe, Saleof
Dunkirk, 126. For this, with several
other curious facts, especially the
way in which Louis outwitted the
English government in the matter of
payment, see (Euvres de Louis XIV,
Memoires Historiques, ire partie, 167.
(Paris, 1806.) Oldmixon intimates
(290) that the queen-mother, who

had come to England shortly before
this, had a hand in arranging the
affair. See also Carte's Ormond,
ii. 250 (iv. 101, Clar. Press ed.) ;
General Dictionary, vi. 337; Kennet's
History, 224; and Southwell's MS.
Letter to the second Earl of Claren-
don at the end of vol. ii. of Onslow's
copy of Clarendon's Life. This,
however, again must be compared
with the passages in D'Estrades
(Ambassades, &c. 414^, where the
best way of concealing the trans-
action from the queen-mother is dis-
cussed. The price paid by the French,
after prolonged haggling (see Louis
to D'Estrades, Aug. 27, 1662, quoted
by Combe), was 500,000 pistoles (or
5,000,000 livres : Cal. St. P. Dom.
1661-2, 545), about £200,000. See
upon this, the king's instructions in
Lister, iii. 512 and 516 ; Ranke, iii.
387-389. Sir E. Harley, writing to
Lady Harley, Nov. 25, 1662, says :
' Dunkirk is come to town, that is the
garrison. Brave fellows they are;
every man has brought the king his
weight in silver.' Portland MSS.
vol. Ill ; H. M. C. Rep. xiv. App. ii.
270. Many medals were struck by
Louis, one with the motto ' Dun-
querca recuperata providentia prin-
cipis, MCLXII.' Jusserand, A French
Ambassador, &c., 31 ; Hawkins's
Medallic Illustrations of British His-
tory, i. (ed. Franks and Grueber,
1885). For the text of the treaty
see Combe, 148.

of King Charles II. 305

the place well ; and he was sure it could never be taken, as CHAP. v.
long as England was master of the sea. The holding it
would keep both France and Spain in a dependence upon
the king. But he was singular in that opinion ; so it was
sold: and all the money that was paid for it was immediately
squandered away among the mistress's creatures. By this
the king lost his reputation abroad. The court was believed
venal ; and because the earl of Clarendon was in greatest
credit, the blame was cast chiefly on him ; though his son
assured me, he kept himself out of that affair entirely1.
The cost bestowed on that place since that time, and the
great prejudice we have suffered by it, has made that sale
to be often reflected on very severely. But it was pretended
that Tangier, which was offered as a part of the portion that
the infanta of Portugal was to bring with her, was a place
of much greater consequence. Its situation in the map is
indeed very eminent ; and if Spain had been then in con-
dition to put any restraint on our trade, it had been of great
use to us ; especially if the making a mole there had been
more practicable than it proved to be. It was then spoke
of in the court in the highest strains of flattery. It was
said, this would not only give us the entire command of
the Mediterranean trade, but it would be a place of safety
for a squadron to be kept always there, for securing our
East and West India trade. And such mighty things were
said of it, as if it had been reserved for the king's reign, to
make it as glorious abroad as it was happy at home : though
since that time we have never been able, neither by force
nor treaty, to get ground enough round the town from the
Moors to maintain the garrison. But every man that MS. 90.
was employed there studied only his own interest, and how
to rob the king. If the money, that was laid out in the
mole at different times, had been raised all in a succession,
as fast as the work could be carried on, it might have been

1 In his opinion and advice, but matters, and made him to be called
not in his actings : an unhappy dis- the author of many things he was
tinction of his, which went to other really averse to. O.

VOL. I. X

306

The History of the Reign

CHAP. V. made a very valuable place. But there were so many dis-

continuings, and so many new undertakings, that after an

174 immense charge the court grew weary of it : and in the

year [i6]83 they sent a squadron of ships to bring away

the garrison and to destroy all the works 1.

To end this matter of the king's marriage with the infanta
of Portugal all at once : it was at last concluded. The earl
of Sandwich went for her, and was the king's proxy in the
nuptial ceremony2. The king communicated the matter
both to the parliament of England and Scotland ; and so
strangely were people changed, that though they all had
seen the mischievous effects of a popish queen in the former

1 See, on the occupation of Tan-
giers, the History of the 2nd Queens
Royal Regiment, by Lieut.-Col. John
Davis, vol. i. (1887), which contains
excellent plates and plans. In the
Sloane Collection in the British Mu-
seum there is a mass of papers relating
to this matter; and there is a great
deal of interesting information about
the incessant and harassing war
maintained upon it by the Moors in
Spanish Negotiations, i Original Let-
ters and Negotiations of Fanshawe,
Sandwich, Sunderland, and William
Godolphin, 1665-78,' vol. i. (1724), and
in Arlington's Letters (1701), vol. ii;
a description of Teviot's vigorous
command as deputy-governor occurs
in the Portland MS S., vol. iii, H. M.
C. Rep. xiv. App. ii. He was killed
there in May, 1664 (infra, 370 note).
Among the Dartmouth MSS., H. M.
C. Rep. xi. App. v. p. 28, there is a
paper" headed ' An establishment for
Tangier,' from which the annual
charge appears to have been more
than ^"42,000; and the continuous
loss of life was very great. The desire
to get rid of so irksome a charge
(Pepys, passim} was seconded by
the jealousy displayed in the House
of Commons of its maintenance as a

nursery for a ' popish ' army (Debate
of Nov. 17, 1680, Part. Hist. iv. 1216).
The original instructions for the
abandonment (for which cf. f. 593)
are dated July 2, 1683. Dartmouth
MSS., H. M. C. Rep. xi. App. v.
53 ; where may be seen detailed
accounts from Pepys, who accom-
panied the squadron under Legge,
afterwards Earl of Dartmouth. See
also Pepys's ' Tangier Journal ' in
Rev. J. Smith's Life, Journal and
Correspondence of Pepys, i. 331 (1841).
The successive governors of Tangier
were Lord Peterborough to Sept.
1663 ; Rutherford, created Earl of
Teviot, to May, 1664 ; Lord Bellasys,
to Sept. 1666; Col. H. Norwood,
lieut.-governor until 1669 ; Earl of
Middleton, from 1667 to June, 1674.
2 The marriage was approved in
Council, May 3, 1661, and performed
in May, 1662. There was no proxy
marriage. The pope, who would
not recognize the independence of
Portugal, declined to grant a dis-
pensation. Lister, App. ccxxxviii,
and Clarke's Life of James II, 394,
where the reason given is that the
Portuguese refused to have the cere-
mony performed in their own country
by a protestant.

of King Charles II. 307

reign, yet not one person moved against it in either parlia- CHAP. V.
ment, except the earl of Cassillis 1 in Scotland ; who moved
for an address to the king to marry a protestant. He had
but one to second him : so entirely were men run from one
extreme to another. When the queen was brought over,
the king met her at Winchester, in summer [i6]62.
The archbishop of Canterbury came to perform the
ceremony: but the queen was bigoted to such a degree,
that she would not say the words of matrimony, nor
bear the sight of the archbishop 2. The king said the
words hastily : and the archbishop pronounced them May 24,
married persons. Upon this some thought afterwards to l66a-
have dissolved the marriage, as a marriage only de facto,
in which no consent had been given. But the duke of York
told me, they were married by the lord Aubigny3 accord-
ing to the Roman ritual, and that he himself was one of
the witnesses : and he added, that, a few days before he
told me this, the queen had said to him, that she heard
some intended to call her marriage in question ; and that,
if that was done, she must call on him as one of her
witnesses to prove it. I saw the letter that the king writ
to the earl of Clarendon the day after their marriage, by
which it appeared very plainly, if not too plainly, that the
marriage was consummated, and that the king was well
pleased with her 4, which convinced me of the falsehood of

1 See supra 89, note. Bellings was sent at this time to ask

2 According to De Wiquefort the for the cardinalate for him.

king delayed meeting her until he 4 Before he was married, he told

could bring the session to an end, as old Colonel Legge (who he knew

he feared a parliamentary attack upon had never approved of the match),

Clarendon if he were absent. Cal. that he thought they had brought

St. P. Dom. 1661— 2, 372. Sheldon him a bat, instead of a woman ; but

was still Bishop of London. See, upon it was too late to find fault, and he

this marriage, Carte's Ormond, iv. must make the best he could of a

104-112. For the Catholic ceremony bad matter. She was very short

on May 24, Cal. Clar. St. P. App. and broad, of a swarthy complexion,

xx. and Mem. of Lady Fanshawe, one of her fore teeth stood out,

142-145; Clarke's Life of James II, which held up her upper lip; had

i. 395. some very nauseous distempers,

y For Aubigny, see supra 243, note. besides excessively proud and ill-

X 2

3o8

The History of the Reign

CHAP. v. the reports that had been so set about that I was once
persuaded of them, that she was not fit for marriage. The
king himself told me, she had been with child : and Willis,
the great physician, told doctor Lloyd, from whom I had
it. that she had once miscarried of a child, which was so
far advanced, that, if it had been carefully looked to, the
sex might have been distinguished l. But she proved
a barren wife, and was a woman of a mean shape, and of no
agreeable temper : so that the king never considered her
much, and she made ever after but a very mean figure.
For some time the king carried things decently, and did
not visit his mistress openly 2. But he grew weary of that
restraint ; and shook it off so entirely, that he had ever
after that mistresses to the end of his life, to the great
175 scandal of the world, and to the particular reproach of all
that served about him in the church 3. He usually came

humoured. D. The accounts of
the person of the queen are as
various as the writers. The king's
own letter (Lansdowne MSS., 1236,
f. 124, partly printed in Lister,
iii. App. Ixx. and, in extenso, in
Macpherson. Ong. Papers, \. 22) says
indulgently (Jesse's Memoirs of the
Court of England, iii. 388), that there
was ' nothing in her face that can
in the least shocke one/ It does not
however bear Burnet's interpreta-
tion. Clarendon says that ' she had
beauty and wit enough to make her-
self very agreeable to his Majesty';
Sandwich spoke of ' the most lovely
and agreeable person of the Queene';
Sir J. Williamson calls her * of
person short, but lovely, fair, and
blackeyed.' (Fleming Papers, H. M.
C. Rep. xii. App. vii. 28). See also
Nicholas to Rutherford (Cal. Si.
P. Dom. 1661-2, 396) ; Reresby's
Memoirs (ed. Cartwright), 53, 'very
little, not handsome (though her face
was indifferent) '; Chesterfield's Let-
ters, 123 ; Evelyn's Diary, May 30,

1662; Pepys's Diary, May 31, Sept.
7, 1662. See also Macdiarmid's Lives
of three British Statesmen, 551.
Reresby adds (53) that ' Her educa-
tion was so different from his, being
most of her life brought up in a
monastery, that she had nothing
visible about her capable to make
the king forget his inclination to the
Countess of Castlemaine.'

1 The affirmative evidence on this
point is so abundant (Salmon, 616 ;
Pepys, Feb. 22, i66f, &c.) as to leave
no reasonable doubt. It is perhaps
enough to quote Charles's own letter
to his sister, of May 7, 1668 : ' My wife
miscarried this morning.' Mrs. Ady's
Madame, 262, 264 ; cf. supra 292, note,
and infra 470.

2 Lady Castlemaine's lodgings
were the rendezvous of the anti-
Clarendon gang, of whom Ashley,
Bennet, Buckingham, and Lauder-
dale were the chief. See De Wique-
fort's dispatch, May 14, 1662. Cal.
St. P. Dom. 1661-2, 371.

3 It is but justice to remark, that

of King Charles II.

3°9

from his mistress's lodgings to church, even on sacrament CHAP. v.
days. He held as it were a court in them, and all his
ministers made applications to them ; only the earls of
Clarendon and Southampton would never so much as make
a visit to them, which was the maintaining the decencies of
virtue in a very solemn manner. The lord Clarendon put
the justice of the nation in very good hands ; and employed
some who had been on the bench in Cromwell's time, the
famous sir Matthew Hale in particular1.

The business of Ireland was a harder province2. The
Irish that had been in the rebellion had made a treaty March 28,
with the duke of Ormond, then acting in the king's name : l646'

Archbishop Sheldon refused the
sacrament to the king; and that
Bishop Ken, when his majesty's
chaplain, denied the loan of his house
to the king's mistress. R. This
was at Winchester in 1683, when
Ken was Prebendary of Winchester.
Charles, it is said, determined to
give the next bishopric to 'the good
little black man who refused a lodg-
ing to poor Nell,' and accordingly
Ken was made Bishop of Bath and
Wells in 1684. Hawkins, Account
of Ken's Life, 1713, 9; Overton, Life
in the English Church, 1660-74, 72 >
Plumptre's Life of Ken, i. 158, 178.

1 Supra 160, note ; 169, note.

2 There is a confusion in the text
here which renders a clear statement
of the sequence of events necessary.
The instructions which Ormond
received from Charles in January
and February, 1645, empowered him
to offer the suspension of Poyning's
law for such bills as should be
agreed upon between him and the
Irish Catholics, and the immediate
taking away of the penal laws. The
treaty signed by Ormond and the
Supreme Council, March 28, 164!,
and proclaimed July 30, provided for
the admission of Catholics and Pro-
testants to office on equal terms, but

postponed the question of religious
liberty, and said nothing about Poy-
ning's law. Burnet wrote apparently
in complete ignorance of Glamor-
gan's action. On Feb. 6, 1647,
Ormond offered to surrender Dublin
and the Lord Lieutenancy to the
Parliament, and actually gave up
the sword on July 28; he sailed
for England a few days later. On
August 8, the parliamentary com-
mander, Michael Jones, defeated
Preston at Dungan Hill. In'January,
1647, Rinuccini, the nuncio, gained
control of the new Supreme Council,
formed from the General Assembly
which, on Feb. 2, condemned the
peace with Ormond. Ormond landed
again at Cork as Lord-Lieutenant in
October, 1648. On Jan. 17, 164^, he
signed a peace with the confederate
Catholics at Kilkenny, granting them
the free exercise of their religion,
and the complete independence of
the Parliament, with other reforms ;
the confederates agreeing to supply
him with 15,000 foot and 500 horse.
He was, however, routed by Jones
at Rathmines (' the misfortune at
Dublin') on Aug. 2, 1649. Cromwell
landed on Aug. 15, at Dublin, whereas
Ormond did not finally leave until
Dec. 7, 1650.

3io

The History of the Reign

CHAP. V. though he had no legal powers under the great seal, the
king being then a prisoner. But the queen-mother got, as
they give out, the crown of France to become the guarantee
for the performance. By the treaty they were to furnish
him with an army, to adhere to the king's interests, and
serve under the duke of Ormond : and for this they were
to be pardoned all that was past, to have the open exercise
of their religion, and a free admittance into all employments,
and to have a free parliament without the curb of Poyning's
law. But after the misfortune at Dublin, they set up
a supreme council again, and refused to obey the duke of
Ormond ; in which the pope's nuncio conducted them.
After some disputes, and that the duke of Ormond saw he
could not prevail with them to be commanded by him any
more, he left Ireland and Cromwell came over, and
reduced the whole kingdom, and made a settlement of the
confiscated estates for the pay of the undertakers for
the Irish war and of the officers that had served in it1.
The king had in his declaration from Breda 2 promised to
confirm the settlement of Ireland. So now a great debate
arose between the native Irish and English settled in
Ireland, The former claimed the articles that the duke
of Ormond had granted them. He, in answer to this, said
they had broke first on their part, and so had forfeited
their claim to them. They seemed to rely much on the
court of France, and on the whole popish party abroad, of

MS. pr. which they were the most | considerable branch at home.
But England did naturally incline to support the English
interest : and, as that interest in Ireland had gone in very
unanimously into the design of the king's restoration, and

1 An admirable account of the
Cromwellian settlement of Ireland,
and of the proceedings subsequent
to the Restoration under the Acts
of Settlement and Explanation, the
only one indeed from which this
most intricate matter can be clearly
understood, may be seen in Lord E.

Fitzmaurice's Life of Sir W. Petty.
Petty carried out the gigantic work
of the ' Down Survey' under which
the lands were distributed. See
also Sir Thomas Larcom's History
of the Down Survey.

2 There is nothing in the Declara-
tion of Breda about Ireland.

of King Charles II. 311

had merited much on that account, so they drew over the CHAP. v.
duke of Ormond to join with them, in order to an act con-
firming Cromwell's settlement. Only a court of claims was
set up to examine the pretensions of some of the Irish, who
had special excuses for themselves, why they should not be
included in the general forfeiture of the nation 1. Some were 176
under age : others were travelling, or serving abroad : and
many had distinguished themselves in the king's service,
when he was in Flanders, chiefly under the duke of York,
who pleaded much for them, and was always depended on by
them as their chief patron. It was thought most equitable
to send over men from England, who were not concerned
in the interests or passions of the parties of that kingdom,
to try those claims. Their proceedings were much cried
out on : for it was said that every man's claim who could
support it with a good present was found good, and that
all the members of that court came back very rich : so that,
though the Irish thought they had not justice enough done
them, the English said they had too much. When any
thing was to be proved by witnesses, sets of them were
hired to depose according to the instructions given them.
This was then cried out on, as a new scene of wickedness
that was then opened, and that must in [the] end subvert
all justice and good government. The infection has spread
since that time, and crossed the seas, and the danger of
being ruined by false witnesses has become so terrible, that
there is no security against it, but from the sincerity of

1 Arthur Capel, Earl of Essex, then from coming hither/ &c. Essex Papers

Lord- Lieutenant, writing on March (Camd. Soc.), i. 201. The Ormond

28, 1674, says: 'The truth is, the Papers, H. M. C. Rep. via., bear full

lands of Ireland have been a mere testimony to this 'mere scramble.'

scramble, and the least done byway And Sir W. Petty, Treatise on Taxes,

of orderly distribution of them as 33, says that 'The claims upon claims

perhaps hath ever been known, which each hath to the. other's estates,

which makes all men so unsettled in and the facility of making good any

their estates, and so unquiet in their pretence whatsoever . . . ; as also the

possessions, . . . which, considering frequency of false testimonies and

Ireland as a plantation (for in reality abuse of solemn oaths, made security

it is little other), cannot but be so of title impossible.' See Arthur

great a discouragement to all people Young's Travels in Ireland, ch. vii.

312 The History of the Reign

CHAP. V. juries ; and if these come to be packed, then all men may
be soon at mercy, if a wicked government should set on
a violent prosecution, as has appeared oftener than once.
I am not instructed enough in the affairs of Ireland, to carry
this matter into more particulars T. The English interest
was managed chiefly by two men of a very indifferent
reputation : the earls of Anglesey and Orrery 2. The chief
manager of the Irish interest was Richard Talbot 3, one of
the duke's bedchamber men, who had much cunning, and had
the secret of his master's pleasures for some years, and
was afterwards raised by him to be earl and duke of Tyr-
connel. Thus I have gone over the several branches of the
settlement of matters after the restoration. I have reserved
the affairs of the church to the last, as those about which
I have taken the most pains to be well informed, and
which I do therefore offer to the reader with some assurance,
and on which I hope due reflections will be made.

CHAPTER VI.

THE PENSIONARY PARLIAMENT. THE ENGLISH CHURCH
AND THE ACT OF UNIFORMITY.

AT the restoration, Juxon, the ancientest and most

eminent of the former bishops, who had assisted the late

Sept. 20, king in his last hours, was promoted to Canterbury, more

out of decency than that he was then capable to fill that

post ; for as he was never a great divine, so he was now

1 For full accounts see Clarendon, Sheldon ; Sheldon MSS.

Cont. 228-283 ; Carte's Ormond, iv. 3 Richard Talbot was married to

67-74 (Clar. Press ed.). Frances Jennings, sister of the

- Upon Orrery see supra 1 15, 124 ; Duchess of Marlborough. See his

and for Anglesey, supra 174, note. petition to the king 'on behalf of

The disaffection of Anglesey to the in- His Majesty's most distressed subjects

terests of the Church of Ireland, and of the Kingdom of Ireland, who were

the good services of Orrery, are in- ousted of their estates by the late

timated more than once in the letters usurped governments,and are not yet

addressed by Michael Boyle, then restored/ Cal. St. P. Dom. 1671, 30,

Archbishop of Dublin and chancellor 595. Fora description of his person,

of .that kingdom, to Archbishop see M.a.rve\l, Advice to a Painter, 66-74.

of King Charles II. 313

superannuated1. Though others have assured me, that CHAP. VI.
after some discourses with the king, he was so much struck 177~
with what he observed in him, that upon that he lost both
heart and hope. The king treated him with outward
respect, but had no great regard to him. Sheldon and
Morley were the men that had the greatest credit. Sheldon
was esteemed a learned man before the wars : but he was
then engaged so deep ' in the politics, that scarce any .
prints of what he had been remained. He was a very
dexterous man in business, had a great quickness of appre-
hension, and a very true judgment. He was a generous
and charitable man. He had a great pleasantness of con-
versation, perhaps it was too great. He had an art that
was peculiar to him, of treating all that came to him in
a most obliging manner: but few depended much on his
professions of friendship. He seemed a not to have a deep a
sense of religion, if any at all : and spoke of it most com-
monly as of an engine of government, and a matter of
policy ; and by this means the king came to look on him

a altered from seemed to have very little.

1 Juxon died in July, 1663. He sion,' not 'comprehension,' was his

was succeeded by Sheldon ; and the principle : while the minatory tone

Bishopric of London was filled by which he assumed towards Charles

Henchman. perfectly reflects the political sub-

Upon Sheldon, who, Sir Francis jection in which the king was kept

Wenman said, was born and bred to by the Church under his guidance,

be Archbishop of Canterbury, see See especially his letter to Charles,

Bishop Parker's work De Rebus sui when the latter suggested toleration,

ternporis Commentarii, 35-46. R. See in December, 1662, infra 350, note ;

also Salmon's Lives of English British Quarterly Revieiv, April,

Bishops (1733), 737 ; Pope's Life of 1883, 332. His munificence and

Seth Ward ( 1697), 53; Echard under private charity were undoubted. He

the year 1677 (when Sheldon died) ; is said to have given away between

and Overton's Life in the English £60,000 and £70,000. All preferment

Church, 1660-74, J9> 2°- The last was in his hands, and he used it with

is a useful work of reference on the credit. Hewasemphaticallyastrcng,

leading clergy of the time, although sincere, and courageous man, and it

the favourable side is naturally the was to his honour that he stayed in

one which most engages the author's T ondon during the plague, and that

attention. Sheldon amply represents he did not hesitate to rebuke Charles

the harsher side of the Church in all for his licentiousness, even refusing

his dealings with Dissent ; ' exclu- him the sacrament.

The History of the Reign

CHAP. VI. as a wise and honest clergyman, that had little virtue and
less religion a. Sheldon was at first made bishop of London,
and was upon Juxon's death promoted to Canterbury.
Morley had been first known to the world as a friend of
the lord Falkland's : and that was enough to raise a man's
character 1. He had continued for many years in the lord
Clarendon's family, and was his particular friend. He was
a Calvinist with relation to the Arminian points, and was
thought a friend to the puritans, before the wars : but he
took care after his promotion to free himself from all
suspicions of that kind. He was a pious and charitable
man, of a very exemplary life, but extreme passionate, and
very obstinate. He was first made bishop of Worcester.
Dr. Hammond, for whom that see was designed, died a little
MS. 92. before the restoration, | which was an unspeakable loss to
the church : for, as he was a man of great learning and of
most eminent merit, he having been the person that during
the bad times had maintained the cause of the church in a
very singular manner, so he was a very moderate man in
his temper, though with a high principle, and probably he
would have fallen into healing counsels. He was also much
set on reforming abuses, and for raising in the clergy a due
sense of the obligations they lay under. But by his death
Morley was advanced to Worcester : and not long after he
1662. was removed to Winchester, void by Duppa's death, who

* The following passage is here struck out. The duke told me that he had
often tried him in several points of Popery, and that he seemed always very
complying : in particular, when S til ling flee f s book charging the Church of Rome
with idolatry came out, he asked him if that was the doctrine of the Church of
England ; he told him it was not, but that men who had a mind to be popular
would fall into such methods for raising themselves.

1 ' The best man alive,' Clarendon
calls him. Cal. Clar. St. P. ii. 271.
He was a friend also of Izaak Walton,
under whose roof he found protec-
tion during the Rebellion. Pepys,
under Dec. 25, 1662, relates a piece
of gossip reflecting upon his reputa-
tion for charity which is, however,

worthless in the face of the positive
evidence. See Elmes's Sir C. Wren
and His Times (1823), 423, and
Salmon's Lives of the Bishops. He
was Bishop of Worcester from 1660
to 1662, when he was promoted to
Winchester, which see he held to
his death in 1684.

of King Charles II.

had been the king's tutor, though no way fit for that post. CHAP. vi.

He was a meek and humble man, and much beloved for

the sweetness of his temper ; and would have been more

esteemed if he had died before the restoration ; for he made

not that use of the great wealth that flowed in upon him that

was expected. Morley was thought always the honester

man of the two, as Sheldon was certainly the abler man.

The first point in debate was, whether concessions ITS
should be made and pains taken to gain the dissenters, or
not ; especially the presbyterians. The earl of Clarendon
was much for it ; and got the king to publish a declaration 1 Oct. 25,
soon after his restoration, concerning ecclesiastical affairs,
to which if he had stood, very probably the greatest part
of them might have been gained. But the bishops did not

1660.

1 The Declaration was a com-
promise arrived at between Epis-
copalians and Presbyterians at a
conference, the final meeting of
which was held at Clarendon's
lodgings in Worcester House, on
Oct. 23, 1660, when the king, with
Albemarle and Ormond, Manchester
and Hollis, Sheldon, Morley, three
other bishops and some more Epis-
copalian divines, met Reynolds,
Calamy, Baxter, and other repre-
sentative Presbyterians. It was issued
on Oct. 25. Charles endeavoured in
vain to secure the insertion of a
clause giving religious liberty to the
Catholics, Baxter being especially
vehement against it. For Morley' s
opinion, see Lister, iii. no. Upon
the motion of Hale, the Commons
ordered in a Bill for turning the
Declaration into an Act. This was
brought to a second reading on
Nov. 28, but was then thrown out
on the * previous question ' by 183
to 157. Monk's friend, Secretary
Morrice, spoke strongly against
it. See the Declaration in Kennet's
Hist. 243 and in the Parl. Hist. iv.

131, with Clarendon's speech of
Sept. 13, id. 123 ; his own account,
Cont. 142 ; Commons Journals, Nov.
6, 28 ; and Ranke, iii. 353. How
far the Declaration was a pure 'blind'
cannot be ascertained ; but, read
between the lines, it leaves no doubt
as to the king's own inclinations.
' Though the Presbyter would have
the Church settled in Parliament, the
other party are resolved to put it off
with delay, and by that means com-
pass their design, which is to have
it settled by a Synod . . . after the
dissolution of this Parliament.'
Verney MSS. A royal proclamation
was issued against conventicles as
early as Jan. 10, 1661. It is stated
by Ralph (i. 52), that the annoyance
of the sects, other than the Presby-
terians, at being left out in the cold
by the Declaration, led them to
further the Act of Uniformity, which
affected the Presbyterians as much
as themselves. Nicholas, writing to
Bennet, Dec. 6, 1661, speaks of the
Bill as quashed by the violence of
its promoters, and happily thrown
out. R. O. vol. xxii. ff. 36, 40.

316 The History of the Reign

CHAP. VI. approve of this : and after the service they did that lord in
the duke of York's marriage, he would not put hardships
on those that had so signally obliged him l. This disgusted
the lord Southampton much, who was for carrying on the
designs that had been much talked of during the wars, of
moderating matters both with relation to the government
of the church and the worship and ceremonies: which
created a coldness between him and the earl of Clarendon
when he went off from those designs. The consideration
that those bishops and their party had in the matter was
this : the presbyterians were possessed of most of the great
benefices in the church, chiefly in the city of London and
in the two universities 2. It is true, all that had come into
the room of those who were turned out by the parliament,
or the visitors sent by them, were turned out by the course
of law, as men that were illegally possessed of other men's
rights : and that, even where the former incumbents were
dead, because a title originally wrong was still wrong in
law. But there were a great many of them in very eminent
posts who were legally possessed of them. Many of these,
chiefly in the city of London, had gone in to the design of
the restoration in so signal a manner, and with such success,
that they had great merit, and a just title to very high
preferment. Now, as there remained a great deal of the
old animosity against them for what they had done during
the war, so it was said that it was better to have a schism
out of the church than within it; and that the half con-
formity of the puritans before the war had set up a faction
in every city and town between the lecturers and the
incumbents ; that the former took all methods to render
themselves popular, and to raise the benevolence of their
people, which was their chief subsistence, by disparaging

1 Macdiarmid, in his Life of Claren- misinformed. See Macdiarmid's Lives

don, observes, that both the state- of Three British Statesmen, 540. R.

ments and sentiments in his later 2 The Presbyterians resigned their

writings are so irreconcilable with livings without remonstrance, in

this account, that it seems reason- many cases voluntarily recalling

able to suppose that the bishop was their predecessors.

of King Charles II. 317

the government both in church 'and] in state. They had CHAP. VI.
also many stories among them of the credit they had in
the elections of parliament men, which they infused in the
king, to possess him with the necessity of having none to
serve in the church but persons that should be firmly tied
to his interest, both by principle, and subscriptions and
oaths. It is true, the joy then spread through the nation May 8,
had got at this time a new parliament to be elected of men l66r<
so high and so hot, that, unless the court had restrained 179
them, they would have carried things much farther than
they did, against all that had been concerned in the late
wars : but they were not to expect such success at all
times : therefore they thought it was necessary to make
sure work at this time, and, instead of using methods to
bring in the sectaries, they resolved rather to seek the most
effectual ones for casting them out, and for bringing in a new
set of men into the church 1. This took with the king, at
least it seemed to do so. But, though he put on an out-
ward appearance of moderation, yet he was in another and
deeper laid design, to which the heat of these men was sub-
servient, for bringing in of popery. A popish queen was a
great step to keep it in countenance at court, and to have
a great many priests going about the court making converts ;
but it was thought a toleration was the only method for
setting it a going all the nation over. And nothing could
make a toleration for popery pass, but the having great
bodies of men put out of the church, and put under severe
laws, which should force them to move for a toleration, and
should make it reasonable to grant it to them. And it was
resolved, that whatever should be granted of that sort,
should go in so large a manner that papists should be

1 The Convention Parliament had away the Court of Wards and laying

a large Presbyterian majority. In the charge upon the Excise appear

that •which now met, May 8, 1661, to have contributed to this result,

there were but fifty-six Presbyterian See Cal. St. P. Dom. 1660-1, 535-

members. The City of London, to 550 passim, for interesting notices of

the great annoyance of the Court, the excitement caused by the City

elected four Presbyterians ; the taking elections.

318 The History of the Reign

CHAP. VI. comprehended within it. So the papists had this generally
spread among them, that they should oppose all proposi-
tions for comprehension, and should animate the church

MS. 93. party to maintain their ground | against all the sectaries.
And in that point they seemed zealous for the church.
But at the same time they spoke of toleration, as necessary
both for the peace and quiet of the nation, and for the
encouragement of trade. And with this the duke was so
possessed, that he declared himself a most violent enemy
to comprehension, and as zealous for toleration. The king
being thus resolved on fixing the terms of conformity to
what they had been before the war, without making the
least abatement or alteration, they carried on still an
appearance of moderation, till the strength of the parties
should appear in the new parliament. So, after the Declara-
tion was set out, a commission was granted to twelve of
a side, with nine assistants to each side, who were appointed
to meet at the Savoy, and to consider on the ways of

March 25- uniting both sides 1. At their first meeting Sheldon told
1 66 1!5' them, that those of the church had not desired this meet-
ing as not being satisfied with the legal establishment ; and
therefore they had nothing to offer; but it belonged to the
other side, who moved for alterations, to offer both their
exceptions to the laws in being, and the alterations that
iso they proposed. He told them they were to lay all they
had to offer before them at once ; for they would not
engage to treat about any one particular till they saw how
far their demands went : and he said that all was to be
transacted in writing, though the others insisted on an
amicable conference ; which was at first denied, yet some
hope was given of allowing it at last. Papers were upon
1641. this given in. The presbyterians moved that bishop Usher's
Reduction should be laid down as a groundwork to treat
on 2 ; that bishops should not govern their diocese by their

1 l Jack the Levite labours to con- 2 Neal's Puritans (1733), ii. 407,

found Aaron the jure divino priest.' 466. The ' Reduction ' provided for
Sutherland Papers, H.M. C Rep.v.i 73. monthly, yearly and triennial synods,

of King Charles II. 319

single authority, nor depute it to the lay officers in their CHAP. VI.
courts, but should in matters of ordination and jurisdic-
tion take along with them the council and concurrence
of their presbyters. They did offer several exceptions to
the liturgy ; against the many responses by the people, the
answers to the litany, which they desired might be made
one continued prayer. They desired that no lessons should
be taken out of the apocryphal books ; that the psalms
used in the daily service should be according to the new
translation. They excepted to many parts of the office of
baptism, that import the inward regeneration of all that
were baptized. But as they proposed these amendments,
so they did also offer a liturgy new drawn by Mr. Baxter.
They insisted, mainly, on kneeling at the sacrament of the
Lord's supper as a thing imposed, and moved that the
posture might be left free ; and that the use of the surplice,
of the cross in baptism, of godfathers being the sponsors in
baptism, and of the holy days, might be abolished. Sheldon
saw well what the effect would be of putting them to make
all their demands at once. The number of them raised
a mighty outcry against them, as people that could never
be satisfied. But nothing gave so great an advantage
against them, as their offering a new liturgy. In this they
were divided among themselves. Some were for insisting
only on a few important things, reckoning that if these were
gained, and a union followed upon that, it would be easier
to gain other things afterwards. But all this was over-
thrown by Mr. Baxter, who was a man of great piety, and,
if he had not meddled in too many things, he would have
been esteemed one of the learned men of the age : he writ
near two hundred books * : of these, three are large folios.

under the presidency of deans and for when asked by Mr. Boswell,

bishops, regarded only as primi what works of Baxter he should

inter pares, and not qualified to act read, he said, ' Read any of them,

without the advice of the synod. they are all good.' R. See Grosart's

Gardiner, ix. 387. Bibliographical List of the Works of

1 Very sad ones. S. Dr. Samuel Baxter, 1868 ; also Orme's Life and

Johnson was of a different opinion ; Times of Baxter, 1830.

320

The History of the Reign

CHAP. VI. He had a very moving and pathetical way of writing, and
as he was his whole life long a man of great zeal and much
simplicity, so he was most unhappily subtle and meta-
physical in every thing. There was a great submission
paid to him by the whole party. So he persuaded them,
that from the words of the commission they were bound to
offer every thing that they thought might conduce to the
good or peace of the church, without considering what was
isi like to be obtained, or what effect their demanding so much
might have, in irritating the minds of those who were then
the superior body in strength and number. All the whole
matter was at last reduced to one single point, whether it
was lawful to determine the certain use of things indifferent
in the worship of God ? The bishops held them to that
point, and pressed them to shew that any of the things
imposed were of themselves unlawful. The presbyterians
declined this ; but affirmed that other circumstances might
make it become unlawful to settle a peremptory law about
things indifferent ; which they applied chiefly to kneeling
in the sacrament ; and stood upon it, that a law which
excluded all that did not kneel from the sacrament was un-
lawful, as a limitation in the point of communion put on
the laws of Christ, which ought to be the only condition of
those who had a right to it. Upon this point there was
a free conference, that lasted some days. The two men
that had the chief management of the debate, were the
most unfit to heal matters, and the fittest to widen them,
that could have been found out. Baxter was the opponent,
and Gunning was the respondent, who was afterwards
advanced, first to Chichester, and then to Ely 1. He was

1 Baxter himself names Pierce,
then Master of St. John's and Regius
Professor of Divinity at Cambridge,
afterwards President of Magdalen,
Oxford, as by far the ablest of his
opponents, and says that he and
Gunning did all the work for that
side; though in Calamy's Abridge-

ment, 154, 171, Morley is called the
' Prime Manager.' Another account
of the conference, of great interest
from the Anglican side, is contained
in the Danby MSS., Brit. Mus. Add.
MSS. 28,053, f- i. See Kennet's
Hist. 254, on Baxter's ' fencing.'
On Gunning, who was made Bishop

of King Charles IL 321.

a man of great reading, and noted for a special subtilty of CHAP, vi
arguing : all the arts of sophistry were made use of by him
on all occasions, in as confident a manner as if they had
been sound reasoning. He was a man of an innocent life,
unweariedly active to very little purpose. He was much
set on the reconciling us with popery in some points : and
because the charge of idolatry seemed a bar | to all thoughts MS. 94.
of reconciliation with them, he set himself with very great
zeal to clear the church of Rome of idolatry. This made
many suspect him as inclining to go over to them : but he
was far from it, and was a very honest, sincere man, but of
no sound judgment, and of no prudence in affairs. He was
for our conforming in all things to the rules of the primitive
church, particularly in praying for the dead, in the use of
oil, with many other rituals : he formed many in Cambridge
upon his own notions, who have carried them perhaps
farther than he intended. Baxter and he spent some days
in much logical arguing, to the diversion of the town, who
thought here were a couple of fencers engaged into a thread
of disputes, that could never be brought to an end, nor have
any good effect. In conclusion, this commission, being
limited to such a number of days, came to an end before
any one thing was agreed on. The bishops insisted on the
laws that were still in force, to which they would admit of
no exception, unless it was proved that the matter of those
laws was sinful. They charged the presbyterians for having 132
made a schism, upon grounds which now they themselves
could not call sinful. They said there was no reason to
gratify such a sort of men in any thing : one demand
granted would draw on many more : all authority both in
church and state was struck at by the position they had
insisted on, that it was not lawful to impose things in-
different, since they seemed to be the only proper matter in
which human authority could interpose. So this furnished

of Chichester in 1669 and of Ely but what is well,' Evelyn, Feb 23,
in 167-^, see Reliquiae Baxterianae 1673. He died on July 6, 1684.
and ff. 436. 590. ' He can do nothing

VOL. I. Y

322 The History of the Reign

CHAP. VI. an occasion to expose them as enemies to all order.
Things had been carried at the Savoy with great sharpness,
and many reflections. Baxter said once, such things would
offend many good men in the nation. Stearn *, upon that
took notice, that he would not say kingdom, but nation,
because he would not acknowledge a king. Of this great
complaints were made, as an indecent return for the zeal
they had shewn in the restoration 2.

The conference broke up without doing any good ; it did
rather hurt, and heightened the sharpness that was then on
people's minds to such a degree, that it needed no addition
to raise it higher. The presbyterians laid their complaints
before the king : but little regard was had to them. And
now all the concern that seemed to employ the bishops'
thoughts was, not only to make no alteration on their
account, but to make the terms of conformity much stricter
than they had been before the war. So it was resolved to
maintain conformity to the height, and to put lecturers in
the same condition with the incumbents as to oaths and
subscriptions, and to oblige all persons to subscribe an un-
feigned assent and consent to all and every particular
contained and prescribed in the book of common prayer.
Many who thought it lawful to conform in submission yet
scrupled this, as importing a particular approbation of every
thing : and great distinction was made between a conformity
in practice and so full and distinct an assent. Yet men got
over that, as importing .no more but a consent of obedience :
for though the words of the subscription, which were to be
also publicly pronounced before the congregation, were the
declaring the person's unfeigned assent and consent, seemed
to import this, yet the clause that enjoined this carried

1 He was then Bishop of Carlisle. ment of this work (1702 and 1713)

O. and Orme's Life and Times of Baxter

3 This is chiefly taken from Sil- are the principal authorities. A new

vester's Life of Baxter (fol. 1696), Life of Baxter, by the Rev. J. Hamil-

which was drawn from his autobio- ton Davies, was published in 1887.
graphical remains. Calamy's Abridge-

of King Charles II. 323

a clear explanation of it, for it enacted this declaration as CHAP. vf.
an assent and consent to the use of all things contained in
the book. Another subscription was enacted with relation
to the league and covenant ; by which they were required
to declare it unlawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take
arms against the king, renouncing the traitorous position of iss
taking arms by his authority against his person, or those
commissioned by him, together with a declaration that no
obligation lay on them or any other person, from the league
or covenant, to endeavour any change or alteration of
government in church and state, and that the covenant was
in itself an unlawful oath. This was contrived against all
the old men, who had both taken the covenant themselves,
and had pressed it upon others1. So they were now to
own themselves very guilty in that matter. And those
who thought it might be lawful upon great and illegal
provocation to resist unjust invasions on the laws and
liberties of the subjects, excepted to the subscription, though
it was scarce safe for any at that time to have insisted on
that point. Some thought, that since the king had taken
the covenant, he at least was bound to stand to it. Another
point was fixed by the act of uniformity, which was more
at large formerly. Those who came to England from the
foreign churches had not been required to be ordained
among us. But now all that had not episcopal ordination
were made incapable of holding any ecclesiastical benefice 2.
Some few alterations were made in the liturgy by the
bishops themselves: a few new collects were made, as
the prayer for all conditions of men, and the general thanks-

1 The record in the Lords Journals as should hereafter conform were

for May 8, 1662, of the discussion in by another clause made capable of

the conference between the Houses holding livings, though not of the

on disputed points is of extreme livings from which they had been

interest, especially for the clauses in- ejected.

sisting upon episcopal organization, 2 Except the ministers of the

and upon all incumbents, officers of French and Dutch Churches in

universities, public schoolmasters, London allowed by the king. Claren-

and even private tutors, taking the don, Cont. i. 152.
oaths here mentioned. Such ministers

Y 2

324

The History of the Reign

CHAP. VI. giving : a collect was also drawn for the parliament, in
which a new epithet was added to the king's title that gave
great offence, and occasioned much indecent raillery : he
was styled our most religious king1. It was not easy to
give a proper sense to this, and to make it go well down ;
since, whatever the signification of religion might be in the
Latin word, as importing the sacredness of the king's
MS. 95. | person, yet in the English language it bore a signification
that was no way applicable to the king. And those who
took great liberties with him have often asked him, what
must all his people think when they heard him prayed for
as their most religious king ? Some other lesser additions
were made ; but care was taken that nothing should be
altered so as it had been moved by the presbyterians ; for
it was resolved to gratify them in nothing. One important
addition was made, chiefly by Gauden's means 2 : he pressed
that a declaration explaining the reasons of their kneeling
at the sacrament, which had been in king Edward's liturgy
but was left out in queen Elizabeth's time, should be again
set where it had once been. The papists were highly
offended when they saw such an express declaration made
against the real presence ; and the duke told me, that when
he asked Sheldon how they came to declare against a
doctrine on which he had been instructed that it was the
184 doctrine of the church, Sheldon answered, Ask Gauden
for that, that is a bishop of your own making : for the king
had ordered his promotion for the service he had done3.
The convocation that prepared those alterations, as they

1 The same expressions of our
most religious and gracious king, as
appear in the present prayer for the
parliament, occur in that which was
used for the same assembly in 1625.
It is to be found in the Summary of
Devotions, compiled and used by
Archbishop Laud. The beginning
of which prayer, as far as the words
of our sovereign and his kingdoms,
together with its conclusion, These

and all other necessaries, &c. , are ex-
actly the same as in the present
form, except in the late substitution
of dominions for kingdoms. R.

2 See the author's History of the
Reformation, iii. 5 of the Preface ; Ken-
net's Register, 585, for the altera-
tion ; and History, 261, for the Act.

3 Gauden was made Bishop of
Exeter, 1660, and translated to
Worcester, 1662.

of King Charles II.

325

added some new holy days, St. Barnabas and the Conver- CHAP. VI.
sion of St. Paul, so they took in more lessons out of the
Apocrypha, in particular the Bel and the Dragon. New
offices were also drawn for two new days, the thirtieth of
January, called king Charles the Martyr, and the twenty-
ninth of May, the day of the king's birth and return. San-
croft drew for these some offices of a very high strain ; yet
others of a moderater strain were preferred to them. But
he, coming to be advanced to the see of Canterbury, got
his offices to be published by the king's authority, in a time
when so high a style as was in them did not sound well in
the nation T. Such care was taken in the choice and returns

1 But the words ' grand rebellion'
were not put in, or the other altera-
tions made, till King James came to
the throne. The word rebellion, I
think, is never used in any Act of
Parliament, except in one. See the
Act 13 & 14 Charles II, for the
distribution of £60,000 to the loyal
and indigent officers, &c. See also
the Commons Journals, Oct. 31,
1665. Note, I had the above observa-
tion from Lord Chancellor King,
relating to the former times. See
with regard to the services for
Jan. 30 and May 29, those in King
Charles's time, and those of King
James's, and compare them well.
See my folio Clarendon, vol. iii. page
last (see Preface, v). When these
services for Jan. 30, and May 29, in
the two reigns, are compared, it may
perhaps be deemed more prudent to
restore those of Charles II, than to
abolish the religious observance of
those two days. The suffering of the
forms of King James to continue
after the Revolution, might possibly
be in some measure owing to this
author, who, in his speech upon
Sacheverel's impeachment, says, the
war between the king and the
parliament was ' plainly a rebellion '

in the latter. I say nothing of his
reasons, but see the whole passage
in the State Trials, vol. v. pp. 652,
653. For the distinction between
the war, and the taking off the
king's head, see Commons Journals,
May 13, 1660. I have said that
in some measure it might be owing
to this author, that the old forms
for Jan. 30 and May 29 were not
restored at the Revolution: but
the chief reason, no doubt, was the
general principle of policy that
governed that whole change, which
was to connect it as little as possible
with what had happened in the time
of the former troubles, against which
the clergy, and the body of the
people, at that time had very strong
prejudices. O. With respect to the
observation on the term rebellion,
words explicitly condemning the
lawfulness of the war levied by the
parliament against the king are to
be found in the Militia Act of 1662.
And in the first form of prayer here
mentioned by the Speaker [Onslow]
for Jan. 30 these words occur, per-
mitting cruel men, sons of Belial, to
execute the fury of their rebellion upon
our late gracious sovereign. R.

326

The History of the Reign

CHAP. VI. of the members of the convocation, that every thing went
among them as was directed by Sheldon and Morley.
When they had prepared all their alterations, they offered
them to the king, who sent them to the house of
commons : upon which the act of uniformity was prepared
by Keeling, afterward lord chief justice1. When it was
brought into the house, many did apprehend that so
severe an act might have ill effects, and began to abate
of their first heat : upon which reports were spread,
and much aggravated as they were reported to the house
of commons, of the plots of the presbyterians in several
counties 2. Many were taken up on those reports : but
none were ever tried 3 : so, the thing being let fall, it has
been given out since, that these were forged by the direc-
tion of some hot spirits, who might think such arts were
necessary to give an alanrij and by rendering the party
odious, to carry so severe an act against them. The lord
Clarendon himself was charged as having directed this
piece of artifice : but I could never see any ground for
fastening it on him: though there are great appearances

1 In December, 1667, Keeling was
called to the Bar of the House of
Commons, to answer a charge of 'mis-
carriages towards juries in tryalls
before him.' Kenyan MSS., H. M.
C. Rep. xiv. App. iv. 81. See also
Pepys for Oct. 17, 21 ; Dec. 12, 13,
1667 ; Oct. 23, 1668 ; Commons
Journals, Dec. 10, 13, 1667. He
was charged with having ' under-
valued, vilified and contemned Magna
Charta.' After hearing his defence,
however, the House resolved to
proceed no further in the matter.

2 It requires a study of the State
Papers for the early years of the reign
to gain an idea of the alarm of the
government and of the consequent
growth of the trade of informer. See
Bennet's report to the king, Lister,
iii. 198 ; Clarendon's Declaration,
Dec. 19, 1661; and Report of the

Joint Committee, Parl. Hist. iv. 226.
The Corporation Act, which is not
mentioned by Burnet, was passed on
the igth. A letter from Nicholas to
Bennet,Dec. 17, 1660, shows that the
plots were allowed to ripen. Cat. St.
P. Dom. 1660-1, 413 and passim. On
Jan. 9 and April 24, i66£, attempts
were made to surprise Berwick and
Newcastle ; id. 470, 572. The number
of disbanded soldiers in London
caused great alarm, and previous
to the coronation a proclamation
was put out ordering them all to
leave the city; id. 567. It was stated
that there were 20,000 or 30,000,
chiefly in Wapping. But see Sir G.
Carteret's opinion, Pepys, Oct. 29,
1662. A proclamation to the same
effect was issued June 10, 1670.
Rugge's Diurnall.
3 A common practice. S.

of King Charles II. 327

of foul dealing among some of the fiercer sort. The act CHAP. VI.
passed by no great majority1 : and by it all who did not
conform to the liturgy by the twenty-fourth of August, 1662. '
St. Bartholomew's day, in the year 1662, were deprived of
all ecclesiastical benefices, without leaving any discretional
power with the king in the execution of it, or without
making provision for the maintenance of those who should
be so deprived : a seventy neither practised by queen
Elizabeth in the enacting her liturgy, nor by Cromwell in
ejecting the royalists2, a fifth part of the benefice being
reserved for their subsistence3. St. Bartholomew's day
was pitched on, that, if they were then deprived, they
should lose the profits of the whole year, since the tithes 185
are commonly due at Michaelmas. The presbyterians
remembered what a St. Bartholomew's had been held at
Paris ninety years before, which was the day of that
massacre, and did not stick to compare the one to the
other. The common prayer with the new corrections was
that to which they were to subscribe ; but the corrections
were so long a preparing, and the vast number of copies,

1 See the Commons Journals, of On that day farewell sermons were

April 16, 1662, for a very extra- preached in London, and about 2,000

ordinary resolution, as to their ministers left the Church. The tithes

not admitting any debate upon of which they were deprived were

the amendments made by the con- the great tithes. The Lords desired

vocation to the former Book of to follow the precedents named in

Common Prayer. O. The division the text by reserving one-fifth of the

on this resolution was 96-90. An revenues (Lords Journals, April 17),

earnest effort was made by Charles but the Commons refused. It is

and Clarendon, while the Bill was curious, on the other hand, that, as

before the Lords, to introduce a dis- the Bill came up to the Lords,

pensing proviso for ministers hold- Michaelmas Day was the day named

ing cures at the time. It was brought for conforming, and that the altera-

in by Clarendon on March 17, 166^, tion to St. Bartholomew's Day was

as recommended by the king, but by their amendment. There is no

rejected after prolonged debate. record of a division on the final

Christie's Life of Shaftesbury, i. 263 stages of the Bill,

and App. vi. The Bill received the 2 But by King William. S. Cf.

royal assent on May 19. For those supra, 280 note,

who had no livings imprisonment a This provision soon fell into

was to take the place of deprivation. arrear. See Newcome's Diary, Jan.

The 1 7th was the last day of grace. 5, i66|.

328

The History of the Reign

CHAP. VI. above 20,000, that were to be wrought off for all the parish
churches of England, made the impression go on so slowly,
that there were few books out when the day came l. So,
many that were well affected to the church, but that made
conscience of subscribing to a book that they had not seen,
left their benefices on that very account. Some made
a journey to London on purpose to see it. With so much
precipitation was that matter driven on, that it seemed
expected that the clergy should subscribe implicitly to a
book they had never seen. This was done by too many, as
I was informed by some of the bishops 2. But the presby-
terians were now in great difficulties. They had many
meetings, and much disputing about conformity. Reynolds
accepted of the bishopric of Norwich. But Calamy and
Baxter refused the sees of Litchfield and Hereford. And

1 In the Session of Parliament, in
the year 1663, a Bill was sent from
the Commons to the Lords, for the
relief of such persons as by sickness
or other impediments were disabled
from subscribing to the declaration
of assent and consent to the Book
of Common Prayer, required by the
Act of Uniformity. The Bill passed
the Lords with a clause added to it,
1 declaring the subscription of assent
and consent, &c., should be under-
stood only as to practice and obedi-
ence' ; but the Commons rejected the
clause [saying, ' there was neither
justice nor prudence in it'], which
the Lords [though highly indignant
at this attack upon their privileges,]
not insisting upon, the Bill passed
without it ; when this clause was
added by the Lords, some of them
dissented to it, and entered their
protestations against it, in these
words ; ' being destructive to the
Church of England, as now estab-
lished.' The protest was first signed
by the Duke of York, and then by
some few temporal lords; but not

one bishop. Lords Journals, July 25,
1663. O.

2 Kennet says, ' It is certain the
book came out of the press, not a
few days but several weeks before
August 24.' See also what he says
further fully contradictory to this
account. Register and Chronicle,
837. Cole. R. See Pepys, August
10, 1662. Ralph, however, i. 75,
adduces a piece of evidence which
goes far to support the statement
in the text. By the Act, ' Some
lawful impediment ' was held to be
good reason for not reading the new
Liturgy on or before the I7th. The
Bishop of Peterborough, in his certi-
ficate signed on that day, states that
* the books . . . could not be gotten
by the Dean and Prebendaries of the
Cathedral Church of Peterborough
(so as they might read the same in the
said Cathedral) before the I7th of
this instant August.' Many sent to
London to have the new Liturgy
copied out, but had no certainty that
the copies were correct. Calamy's
Defence of Nonconformity, ii. 100.

of King Charles II. 329

about two thousand of them fell under the parliamentary CHAP. VI.
deprivation, which raised a grievous outcry over the nation ;
though it was less considered at that time than it would have
been at any other. Baxter told me then that had the terms
of the king's declaration been stood to, he did not believe
that above three hundred of these would have been so
deprived. Some few, and but few, of the episcopal party
were troubled at this severity, or apprehensive of the very
ill effects it was like to have. Here were many men much
valued, some on better grounds and others on worse, who
were now cast out ignominiously, reduced to great poverty,
provoked by much spiteful usage, and cast upon those
popular practices that both their principles and their
circumstances seemed to justify, in forming separate con-
gregations, and of diverting men from the public worship,
and from considering their successors as the lawful pastors
of those churches in which they | had served. The blame MS. 96.
of all this fell heaviest on Sheldon. The earl of Clarendon
was charged with having entertained the presbyterians with
hopes and good words, while he was all the while carrying
on, or at least giving way to, the bishops' project. When
the convocation had gone through the book of common
prayer, it was in the next place proposed, that, according
to a clause in the king's licence, they should consider the
canons of the church. They had it then in their power to 186
have reformed many abuses, and particularly to have pro-
vided an effectual remedy to the root of all those which
arise from the poor maintenance that is reserved to the
incumbents. Almost all the leases of the church estates
over England were fallen in, there having been no renewal
for twenty years. The leases for years were determined :
and the wars had carried off so many men, that most of
the leases for lives were fallen into hand 1. So that the
church estates were now in hand : and the fines raised by
the renewing the leases rose to about a million and a half.
It was an unreasonable thing to let those who were now

1 See Clarendon, Cont. 189, 190.

330

The History of the Reign

CHAP. vi. promoted carry away so great a treasure. If the half had
been applied to the buying in of tithes or glebes for small
vicarages, here a foundation had been laid down for a great
and effectual reformation1. In some sees forty or fifty
thousand pound was raised, and applied to the a enriching
the bishops' families 2. Something was done to churches
and colleges, in particular to St. Paul's in London, and
a noble collection was made for redeeming all the English
slaves that were in any part of Barbary. But this fell far
short of what might have been expected. In this the lord
Clarendon was heavily charged, as having shewed that he
was more the bishops' friend than the church's. It is true
the law made those fines belong to the incumbents ; but
such an extraordinary occasion deserved that a law should
have been made on purpose. What the bishops did with
greater fines was a pattern to all the lower dignitaries,
who generally took more care of themselves than of the
church. The men of merit and service were loaded with
many livings and many dignities. With this great accession
of wealth there broke in upon the church a great deal of
luxury and high living, on the pretence of hospitality ;
while others made purchases, and left great estates, most
of which we have seen melt away. And with this overset
of wealth and pomp, that came on men in the decline of
their parts and age, they who were now growing into old age
became lazy and negligent in all the true concerns of the
church : they left preaching and writing to others, while they
gave themselves up to ease and sloth. In all which sad
representation, some few exceptions were to be made ;
but so few, that, if a new set of men had not appeared of
another stamp, the church had quite lost her esteem over
the nation 3.

a raising and struck out.

1 He judges here right, in iny
opinion. S.

2 Bevill Higgons, in a long note
upon this passage, vindicates the

bishops from the charge by quoting
their charities ,

3 To omit the mention of several
of the old clergy, distinguished by

of King Charles II.

These were generally of Cambridge, formed under some CHAP. VI.
divines, the chief of whom were Drs. Whitchcot, Cudworth,
Wilkins, More, and Worthington1. Whitchcot was a man
of a rare temper, very mild and obliging. He had great 187
credit with some that had been eminent in the late times,
but made all the use he could of it to protect good men of
all persuasions. He was much for liberty of conscience :
and being disgusted with the dry systematical way of those
times, he studied to raise those that conversed with him to
a nobler set of thoughts, and to consider religion as the
seed of a Deiform nature, (to use one of his own phrases.)
In order to this, he set young students much on reading
the ancient philosophers, chiefly Plato, Tully, and Plotin,
and on considering the Christian religion as a doctrine sent
from God both to elevate and sweeten human nature ; in
which he was a great example, as well as a wise and kind
instructor. Cudworth carried this on with a great strength

their erudition as well as their loyalty,
who among the successors of the
Caroline bishops equalled in munifi-
cence Juxon, Sheldon, Cosin, Mop-
ley, and Warner, or surpassed in
piety and learning, Sanderson, Pear-
son, and Fell ? R.

1 Overton, Life in the English
Church, 49-53, has a useful notice
of the ' Cambridge Platonists ' — to
use the term by which they are best
known — of whom, previous to the
Restoration, John Smith, author of
Select Discourses, was the greatest.
The sympathetic account in the text
is creditable to Burnet, whose robust
and aggressive nature was in marked
contrast with the qualities most char-
acteristic of these divines. He, how-
ever, frequently shows his apprecia-
tion of the gentler virtues, as in his
accounts of Nairn, Charteris, Tillot-
son, Leighton, and many others.
Ranke, oddly enough, says that Bur-
net allied himself with them (Overton,
52). The terms ' Latitudinarian,'

which appears to date from this
time (id. 50, and Warwick, Memoirs,
89), and ' Rationalist,' are singularly
inapplicable. See S. T. Coleridge,
Notes on English Divines (Collected
Works), v. 266; A Brief Account of
the New Sect of Latitudinarians, &c.,
by S. P. (Simon Patrick ?) of Cam-
bridge, in answer to a friend at
Oxford ; Mullinger's Cambridge Char-
acteristics in the Seventeenth Century
(1867) ; Rational Theology and Chris-
tian Philosophy in England in the
Seventeenth Century, by J. Tulloch,
D.D., 1862. In Clarke's Life of
Anthony Wood, 355, we find them
vaguely described as ' in some re-
spects like the Independents in the
late warrs.' Cudworth was the op-
ponent of Hobbes, in his Intellectual
System. On Whitchcot, Provost of
King's College, Cambridge, see curi-
ous notices in the Lauderdale Papers,
i. 31, and Cal. St. P. Dom. 1660-1,
121, 160. Worthington edited John
Smith's Discourses.

332

The History of the Reign

CHAP. VI. of genius and a vast compass of learning. He was a man
of great conduct and prudence : upon which his enemies
did very falsely accuse him of craft and dissimulation.
Wilkins was of Oxford, but removed to Cambridge1. His
first rise was in the prince elector palatine's family, when
he was in England. Afterwards he married Cromwell's
sister ; but made no other use of that alliance but to do
good offices, and to cover the university from the sourness
of Owen2 and Goodwin3. But at Cambridge he joined
with those who studied to propagate better thoughts, to
take men off from being in parties, or from narrow notions,

1 See the Life of Dr. John Wilkins,
prefixed to his works (1708) : he was
one of the founders of the Royal
Society (infra 342, note) ; Warden of
Wadham (1648-59), Bishop of Ches-
ter 1667 (f. 253). See Pope's Life
of Seth Ward. Besides his great
scientific acquirements, he was noted
for his tolerant temper and for his
protection of Royalist divines during
the Commonwealth. Cromwell ap-
pears to have steadily protected the
two universities from the fanatical
party, especially during the sitting
of the Barebone Parliament, 1653.

2 John Owen (1616-83), origi-
nally a moderate Presbyterian and
friend of Fairfax, but by 1646 as
moderate an Independent, chaplain
to Cromwell in Ireland in 1649, and
in Scotland in 1650. He was made
Dean of Christ Church by Cromwell
in March, 1651, and Vice-Chancellor
in 1652, retaining this office until
1658. For a short time, in 1654,
he was member for Oxford Univer-
sity, but was unseated on account of
his orders. As one of the Triers he
was kind and considerate. His first
great controversial work was with
John Goodwin on The Perseverance
of Saints (1654), and he combated the
Socinians in his Vindiciae Evangelicae

(1655), which led to a controversy
with Hammond. These were fol-
lowed by many minor works. At
Clarendon's request, in 1662, he
answered the Romanist pamphlet,
' Fiat Lux,' by his ' Animadversions' ;
he entered into controversy with
Bishop Parker in 1669, and replied to
Stillingfleet's Mischief of Separation
(1674) by A Brief Vindication (1680),
which in turn drew from Stillingfleet
the Unreasonableness of Separation,
a perusal of which, as of t\\&Irenicum,
(infra 335), is necessary if a fair idea
is to be obtained of the views held
by the purest advocates of the Church.
This also Owen answered. In
1674 Charles gave him 1,000 guineas
to assist impoverished dissenters.
There does not seem to be any
evidence in support of Burnet's
charge of 'sourness.' He died in
1683.

3 Thomas Goodwin ( 1600-80) took
his B.A. degree at Christ's College,
Cambridge, in 1616. In 1650 he be-
came President of Magdalen, Oxford,
was made a D.D. in 1653, and was
an assistant to the Commissioners
for removing scandalous ministers in
Oxfordshire in 1654. See supra
148.

of King Charles II. 333

from superstitious conceits, and a fierceness about opinions. CHAP. vi.
He was also a great observer of natural, and a promoter of
experimental, philosophy, which was then a new thing, and
much looked after. He was naturally ambitious, but was
the wisest clergyman I ever knew. He was a lover of
mankind, and had a delight in doing good. More was an
open hearted and sincere Christian philosopher, who studied
to establish men in the great principles of religion against
atheism, | that was then beginning to gain ground, chiefly MS. 97.
by reason of the hypocrisy of some, and the fantastical
conceits of the more sincere enthusiasts. Hobbes, who
had long followed the court, and passed there for a mathe-
matical man, though he really knew a little that way,a being
disgusted of the court, came into England in Cromwell's
time, and published a very wicked book, with a very strange 1651.
title, The Leviathan. His main principles were, that all
men acted under an absolute necessity, in which he seemed
protected by the then received doctrine of absolute decrees.
He seemed to think that the universe was God, and that
souls were material ; thought being only a subtil and im-
perceptible motion. He thought interest and fear were
the chief principles of society : and he put all morality in
the following that which was our own private will or
advantage. He thought religion had no other foundation
than the laws of the land ; and he put all law in the will of 188
the prince, or of the people : for he writ his book at first in
favour of absolute monarchy, but turned it afterwards to
gratify the republican party. These were his true principles,
though he had disguised them, for deceiving unwary readers1.

a substituted for nothing of it.

1 See Mr. Leslie Stephen's article Newcastle from 1633 to 1637, in the

upon Hobbes in the Diet. Nat. Biog., Portland MSS., H. M. C. Rep. viii.

and Ranke's analysis of his opinions, App. ii. 120-30. In November, 1640,

iii. 572, as contrasted with those of he fled from England, remaining

Locke. There are some interesting abroad until 1651, in which year the

letters from Hobbes to the Earl of English translation of the De Cive

334

The History of the Reign

CHAP. VI. And this set of notions came to spread much. The novelty
and boldness of them set many on reading them ; the
impiety of them was acceptable to men of corrupt minds,
which were but too much prepared to receive them by the
extravagance of the late times. So this set of men at
Cambridge studied to assert and examine the principles
of religion and morality, on clear grounds, and in a philo-
sophical method. In this More led the way to many that
came after him. Worthington was a man of eminent piety,
of great humility, and practised a most sublime way of
self-denial and devotion. All these, and those who were
formed under them, studied to examine further into the
nature of things than had been done formerly. They
declared against superstition on the one hand, and enthu-
siasm on the other. They loved the constitution of the
church, and the liturgy, and could well live under them :
but they did not think it unlawful to live under another
form. They wished things might have been carried with
more moderation ; and they continued to keep a good
correspondence with those who differed from them in
opinion, and allowed a great freedom both in philosophy
and in divinity : from whence they were called men of lati-
tude. And upon this men of narrower thoughts and fiercer
tempers fastened upon them the name of Latitudinarians l.
They read Episcopius much, and the making out the
reasons of things being a main part of their studies, their

(first printed in 1642), and the Levia-
than, were published. The views
expressed in these works led to his
being compelled to leave France, and
in the same year Nicholas notes that
he was being ' caressed in London
for his traitorous and rebellious
tenets.' CaL Clar. St. P. ii. 122.
See the valuable remarks in Lord
E. Fitzmaurice's Life of Sir W.
Petty, 1 6, 187; Austin's Jurispru-
dence, i. 249, note. As an ' Assertor
Regum ' he naturally commended

himself to Louis XIV, whom he
affected to admire. De Cominges,
French Ambassador in 1663, advised
his master to confer some pecuniary
reward upon ' this bonhomme ' ; he
was sure that no favour could be
more profitably bestowed. Jusse-
rand, A French Ambassador, &c , 60.
Whether Hobbes actually received
a pension is not clear. He died
in Nov. 1679, at the age of ninety-
two. Luttrell, 30.

1 See note, supra 331.

of King Charles II. 335

enemies called them Socinians. They were all very zealous CHAP. VI.
against popery ; and so, they becoming soon very consider-
able, the papists set themselves against them to decry them
as atheists, deists, or at best Socinians. And now that the
main principles of religion were struck at by Hobbes and
his followers, the papists acted upon this a very strange
part. They went in so far even into the argument for
atheism, as to publish many books in which they affirmed,
that there was no certain proof of the Christian religion,
unless we took it from the authority of the church as in-
fallible. This was such a delivering up of the cause to
them, that it raised in all good men a very high indignation
at popery ; that party shewing, that they chose to make
men who would not turn papists become atheists, rather
than believe Christianity upon any other ground than
infallibility. The most eminent of those who were formed 189
under those great men were Tillotson, Stillingfleet, and
Patrick. The first of these was a man of a clear head and
a sweet temper. He had the brightest thoughts and the
most correct style of all our divines, and was esteemed
the best preacher of the age. He was a very prudent man ;
and had such a management with him, that I never knew
any clergyman so universally esteemed and beloved as he
was for above twenty years. He was eminent for his
opposition to popery; he was no friend to persecution, and
stood up much against atheism : nor did any man contribute
more to bring the city to love our worship than he did.
But there was so little superstition, and so much reason
and gentleness in his way of explaining things, that malice
was long levelled at him, and in conclusion broke in fiercely
on him. Stillingfleet was a man of much more learning,
but of a more reserved and a haughtier temper. He, in
his youth, writ an Irenictun for healing our divisions, with 1659.
so much learning and moderation, that it was esteemed
a masterpiece1. His notion was, that the apostles had

1 The Irenicum was published in 1659. See Stillingfleet's Collected Works,
6 vols., 1710.

336

The History of the Reign

CHAP. VI. settled the church in a constitution of bishops, priests, and
deacons, but had made no perpetual law about it, having
only taken it in. as they did many other things, from the
customs and practice of the synagogue; from which he
inferred, that certainly the constitution was lawful, since
authorized by them, but not necessary, since they had
made no settled law about it. This took with many ; but
was cried out upon by others, as an attempt against the
church ; yet the argument was managed with so much
learning and skill, that none of either side ever undertook

MS. 98. to answer it 1. After that, he | wrote against infidelity,
beyond any that had gone before him. And then he
engaged to write against popery, which he did with such
an exactness and liveliness, that no books of controversy
were so much read and valued as his were. He was a great
man in many respects. He knew the world well, and was
esteemed a very wise man. The writing his Irenicum was
a great snare to him : for, to avoid the imputations which
that brought upon him, he not only retracted the book, but
he went in to the humours of that high sort of people
beyond what became him, perhaps beyond his own sense
of things. He applied himself much to the study of law
and records, and the original of our constitution, and was
a very extraordinary man, too much conceited of himself,
and too much concerned for his family. Patrick was a great
preacher2. He wrote much and well, chiefly on the
Scriptures. He was a laborious man in his function, of

1 The book itself was answered in
the year 1680, by Bishop Parker,
as it was then said. See Wood's
Athenae Oxon, art. S. Parker. R.

2 Simon Patrick (1626-1707), at
first a disciple of the Cambridge Pla-
tonists, but afterwards identified with
the High Church party : Dean of
Peterborough, 1679, Bishop of Chi-
chester, 1689 (upon Burnet's recom-
mendation), and of Ely, 1691. He was
the author, in 1669, of the Friendly

Debate between a Conformist and
Nonconformist, an attack upon the
Nonconformists which he appears
to have regretted. As Vicar of St.
Paul's, Covent Garden, from 1662
until his unsought promotion, he
appears to have been a model parish
priest ; and he was one of the
few who stayed at his post during
the Plague. His autobiography is
extant.

of King Charles II. 337

great strictness of life, but a little too severe against those CHAP. VI.

who differed from him ; but that was when he thought

their doctrines struck at the fundamentals of religion. He 100

became afterwards more moderate. To these I shall add

another divine, who, though of Oxford, yet as he was formed

by bishop Wilkins, so he went in to most of their principles,

but went far beyond them in learning. Lloyd was a great

critic both in the Greek and Latin authors, but chiefly in

the Scriptures ; of the words and phrases of which he

carries the most perfect concordance in his memory, and

has it the readiest about him, of all that ever I knew. He

is an exact historian, and the most punctual in chronology

of all our divines. He has read the most books and with

the best judgment, and has made the most copious abstracts

out of them, of any in this age : so that Wilkins used to

say, he had the most learning in ready cash of any he ever

knew. He is so exact in every thing he sets about, that

he never gives over any part of study, till he has quite

mastered it. But when that is done, he goes to another

subject, and does not lay out his learning with the diligence

with which he lays it in. He has many volumes of materials

upon all subjects, laid together in so distinct a method that

he could with very little labour write on any of them. He

has more life in his imagination, and a truer judgment,

than may seem consistent with such a laborious course of

study1. Yet, as much as he is set on learning, he has

1 Lloyd, after several translations, which was all he said would be want-
was Bishop of Worcester. In the ing. The Bishop of London came
year 1712, he told Queen Anne he with him ; and the Duke of Shrews-
thought it his duty to acquaint her, bury. Lord Oxford, Lord Dartmouth,
that the Church of Rome would be and Dr. Arbuthnot were ordered to
utterly destroyed, and the city of attend by the queen. He showed
Rome consumed by fire, in less than a vast memory and command of the
four years ; which he could prove Scriptures at that age (for he was
beyond contradiction, if Her Majesty then above eighty years old); but
would have the patience to hear him the Earl of Oxford offering to give
upon that subject. The queen ap- another interpretation to one of his
pointed him next day in the fore- texts than he did, though in extreme
noon ; and a great Bible was brought, civil terms, the bishop turned to the

VOL. I. Z

338

The History of the Reign

CHAP. VI. never neglected his pastoral care. For several years he
had the greatest cure in England, St. Martin's, Westminster,
which he took care of with an application and diligence
beyond any about him ; to whom he was an example, or
rather a reproach, so few following his example. He is
a holy, humble, meek, and patient man, ever ready to do
good when he sees a proper opportunity : even his love of
study does not divert him from that. He did indeed, upon
his promotion, find a very worthy successor in his cure,
Tenison, who carried on and advanced all those good
methods that he had begun in the management of that
great cure ; he endowed schools, set up a public library,
and kept many curates to assist him in his indefatigable
labours among them. He was a very learned man l, and
took much pains to state the notions and practices of the
heathenish idolatry, to fasten that charge on the church of
Rome. And, Whitehall lying within that parish, he stood
as in the front of the battle all king James's reign ; and
maintained, as well as managed, that dangerous post with
great courage and much judgment, and was held in very
high esteem for his whole deportment, which was ever
grave and moderate. These have been the greatest divines
we have had these forty years2: and may we ever have
191 a succession of such men to fill the rooms of those who
have already gone off the stage, and of those who, being

queen in the greatest passion I ever
saw any man. and told her, ' So says
your treasurer ; but God says other-
wise, whether he like it or no.' The
queen seeing him so angry and rude,
called for her dinner, after which
he said, that if what he had advanced
was not true, he did not know any
truth, and was a very unfit person
to be trusted with explaining the
gospel to other people, and desired
the queen would dispose of his
bishopric to some man of greater
ability, if what he said did not prove
true ; and then spoke something to

the queen in a very low voice, that
nobody else might hear ; which she
told me afterwards was, that after
four years were expired, Christ
would reign personally upon earth
for a thousand years. D.

1 The dullest, good for nothing
man I ever knew. S. Compare
Lord Dartmouth's note at vol. ii.
of the folio edition, f. 136. R.

2 Dr. Routh points out in the 1823
edition, that Burnet, in saying this,
forgets Pearson, Cave, South, Beve-
ridge, Hooper, and Kidder.

of King Charles II. 339

now very old, cannot hold their posts long. Of these I have CHAP. VI.
writ the more fully, because I knew them well, and have
lived long in great friendship with them, but most particu-
larly with Tillotson and Lloyd. And, as I am sensible
I owe a great deal of the consideration that has been had
for me to my being known to be their friend, so I have
really learned the best part of what I know, and of the
services I may have done, to them. And if I have arrived
at any faculty of writing clear and correctly, I owe that
entirely to them. For as they joined with Wilkins in that
noble though despised attempt at an universal character,
and a philosophical language1, they took great pains to
observe all the common errors of language in general, and
of ours in particular : and in the drawing the tables for
that work, which was Lloyd's province, he had looked
further into a natural purity and simplicity of style, than
any man I ever knew ; into all which he led me, and so
helped me to any measure of exactness of writing which
may be thought to belong to me. But I owed them much
more on the account of those excellent principles and
notions, in which they were in a most particular manner
communicative to me. This set of men contributed more
than can be well imagined to reform our way of preaching ;
which, among the divines of the church of England before
them, overrun with pedantry, a great mixture of quotations
from fathers and ancient writers, | a long opening of a text MS. 99.
with the concordance of every word in it, and a giving all
the different expositions with the grounds of them, and the

1 An Essay towards a Real Char- produced earlier, had not the already

acter and a Philosophical Language, printed sheets and much of the MS.

by John Wilkins, D.D., Dean of been destroyed in the Fire of Lon-

Ripon, and Fellow of the Royal don He says that he had often

Society, London, 1668. This labo- talked the matter over with Seth

rious folio was the amplification of Ward (see the latter's Vindiciae

a paper read before the Society, and Academiarum\ and had been greatly

was ordered to be printed at a meet- helped by Wray, Lloyd, and Francis

ing of Council held on Monday, April Willoughby ; but he does not men-

13, 1668. In the Introduction Wil- tion any debt to Tillotson.
kins states that it would have been

Z 2

340

The History of the Reign

CHAP. vi. entering in some parts of controversy ; and all was to con-
clude in some, but very short, practical application, according
to the subject or the occasion. This was both long and
heavy, especially when all was pye-balled1, full of many
sayings of different languages. The common style of
sermons was either very flat and low, or swelled up with
rhetoric to a false pitch of a wrong sublime. The king
had little or no literature, but true and good sense ; and
had got a right notion of style 2 ; for he was in France at
a time when they were much set on reforming their lan-
guage3. It soon appeared that he had a true taste. So
this helped on the value of these men, when the king
approved of the style their discourses generally run in ;
which was clear, plain, and short4. They gave a short
paraphrase of their text, unless where great difficulties
required a more copious enlargement : but even then they
cut off unnecessary shews of learning, and applied them-
selves to the matter, in which they opened the nature and
reasons of things so fully, and with that simplicity, that
their hearers felt an instruction of another sort than had
commonly been observed before. So they became very
much followed : and a set of these men brought off the city

1 A noble epithet. S.

2 How came Burnet not to learn
this style ? S. Something is added
to this note both in vol. xxviii of
the European Magazine, and in Dr.
Barrett's Essay on the Life of Swift,
where about half of Swift's notes are
published, but it is unacknowledged
by the Lansdowne autograph. R.

3 The first ed'tion of the Diction-
naire de I'Academie did not appear
until 1694, though it was begun
in 1639. Introduction to Wilkins's
Essay towards a Real Character, &c.
It expressed the results of the labours
of Malherbe (1556-1628) in the six-
teenth, and of the Hotel de Ram-
bouillet, the Precieuses, the Academy,

and the grammarians, Vaugelas,
d' Olivet, and Thomas Corneille in the
seventeenth century. See Brachet's
Grammaire Historique de la Langue
Fran^aise, Introd. 63-65 ; and Bridge,
Hist, of French Literature, 142-203.

4 Charles's general view of sermons
is simply expressed by himself in
a letter to his sister in 1666 : ' We
have the same disease of sermons
that you complaine of there, but
I hope you have the same conve-
nience that the rest of the family
has, of sleeping out most of the time,
which is a greate ease to those who
are bounde to heare them.' Mrs.
Ady, Madame, 228.

of King Charles II. 341

in a great measure from the prejudices they had formerly CHAP. VI.
to the church 1.

There was a great debate in council a little before
S. Bartholomew's day, whether the act of uniformity
should be punctually executed, or not. Some moved to
have the execution of it delayed till the next session of
parliament. Others were for executing it in the main, but
to connive at some eminent men, and to put curates in
their churches to read and officiate according to the common
prayer, but to leave them to preach on, till they should 102
all die out. The earl of Manchester laid all these things
before the king with much zeal, but with no great force.
Sheldon, on the other hand, pressed the execution of the
law. England was accustomed to obey laws : so while
they stood on that ground they were safe, and needed fear
none of the dangers that seemed to be threatened. He
also undertook to fill all the vacant pulpits, that should
be forsaken in London, better and more to the satisfaction
of the people than they had been before : and he seemed
to apprehend that a very small number would fall under
the deprivation, and that the gross of the party would
conform. On the other hand, those who led the party
took great pains to have them all stick together : they
infused it into them that if great numbers stood out, it
would shew their strength, and produce new laws in their
favour ; whereas they would be despised, if, after so much
noise made, the greater part of them should conform 2.
So it was thought, that many went out in the crowd to
keep their friends company 3. They were reckoned to be

1 The Act of Uniformity was will,' &c., Oct. 14, 1662. Cal. St. P.
seconded by the king's letter to the Dom. 1661-2, 517.
archbishops, containing directions 2 Ralph, i. 74-77.
concerning preachers. ' None are 3 See the account of ' Black Bar-
in their sermons to bound the au- tholomew's' at Oxford in Clarke's Life
thority of sovereigns, or determine of Anthony Wood, i. 453. For a regis-
the differences between them and ter of those deprived, see Calamy's
the people ; nor to argue the deep Account of the Ejected Clergy.
points of election, reprobation, free

342

The History of the Reign

CHAP. VI. about 2000 in all. Many of these were distinguished by
their abilities and zeal. They cast themselves upon the
providence of God and the charity of their friends, which
had a fair appearance, as of men that were ready to suffer
persecution for their consciences. This begot esteem, and
raised compassion : whereas the old clergy, now much
enriched, were as much despised. But the young clergy
that came from the universities did good service. Learning
was then very high at Oxford; chiefly the study of the
oriental tongues, which was much raised by the Polyglot
Bible, lately set forth l. They read the fathers much
there. Mathematics and the new philosophy were in great
esteem. And the meetings that Wilkins had begun at
Oxford were now held in London to such a degree, that
the king himself encouraged them much, and had many
experiments made before him. The men that formed the
Royal Society in London were, sir Robert Murray, the
lord Brouncker, a profound mathematician, and Dr. Ward,
soon after promoted to Exeter, and afterwards removed to
Salisbury2. He was a man of a great reach, went deep
in mathematical studies, and was a very dexterous man,
if not too dexterous ; for his sincerity was much questioned.
He had complied during the late times, and held in by
taking the covenant : so he was hated by the high men
as a time-server. But the lord Clarendon saw that most

1 Biblia Sacra Polyglotta, London,
1657, 6 vols.

a Dr. Wallis, Savilian Professor
of Astronomy, Dr. (afterwards Sir
William) Petty, Robert Boyle, Ken-
elm Digby. Dr. Wilkins himself, with
others of less note, should be added
to the list. Hobbes was not an
original member, owing to the an-
tagonism between him and Wallis.
Fitzmaurice's Life of Sir W. Petty,
107, note. Burnet himself became
a member, on the introduction of
Sir R. Moray, in 1664. The nucleus
of the Society was apparently formed

in 1645 by Theodore Haak, a Ger-
man from the Palatinate, Wallis and
Wilkins, joined in 1646 by Hartlib
and Boyle, under the title of the
' London Philosophical Society.'
Life of Sir W. Petty, 15. See Plans
for the Royal Society, Tangier
Papers, Shane MSS. (Brit. Mus.),
3984, f. 34. In 1659 they removed
to Robert Boyle's lodgings. See
Birch's Hist. Roy. Soc. and Life of
Boyle ; and the attack upon the
Society by Henry Stubbs in 1670.
Cal. St. P. Dom. 1670, 224.

of King Charles II.

343

of the bishops were men of merit by their sufferings, but CHAP. VI.
of no great capacity for business ; so he brought Ward in,
as a man fit to govern the church : for Ward, to get
his former errors to be forgot, went in to the high-flown
notions of a severe conformity, and became the most con-
siderable man on the bishops' bench. He was a profound
statesman, but a very indifferent clergyman 1. Many 193
physicians, and other ingenious men, went in to this
society for natural philosophy ; but he who laboured most,
at the greatest charge, and with the most success at
experiments, was Robert Boyle, the earl of Cork's youngest
son 2. He was looked on by all who knew him as a very

1 See his letters to Sheldon in
the Sheldon MSS. (Bodl.) They are
of the greatest interest as illustrating
the difficulties of carrying out the
severities of Clarendon's Acts. Thus,
on Dec. 19, 1663, he writes : ' There
are in this county of Devon onely,
(besides what there are in Cornwall,)
at least 14 justices of the peace who
are accounted arrant Presbyterians,
and some of them esteemed as
dangerous as any men within my
Diocese.' ' The only persons in this
City (Exeter) who have had the
heart and courage to endeavour an
obedience to the laws have been
checked and discouraged for their
labour, and some put out of employ-
ment as being too pragmaticall and
forward to draw the people to obedi-
ence.' ' My diocese hath two places
in it especially which are disorderly
and troublesome, one in the Easterne
part which borders upon Somerset
and Dorsetshire, which being the
border of three dioceses as well as
of three counties, gives great oppor-
tunity to the sectaries to play their
tricks and escape.' ' Some of the
most populous and considerable
places within my Diocese . . . have
stood void ever since August 24,

1662, and there is hardly one parish
. . . where I have not met with com-
plaint, either that they have no
minister, or a pitiful ignorant one.'
' One imprisoned minister told him
that after his removeall he staid some
moneths to see whether any other
would supply his place, but at length
finding that . . . the people went off,
some to Atheism and Debauchery,
others to Sectarianism (for he is a
presbyterian) he resolved to adven-
ture to gather his flock again. And
he had gathered a flock of 1,500 or
2,000 upon Sunday last when by the
warrant of Sir Wm Strode he was
taken from the pulpit and brought
away.'

On the disinclination of the magis-
trates to press the law, see also Cal.
St. P. Dom. 1668—9, 342, where we
read that the Mayor of Newcastle
'slights the informers,' and 564; id.
1670, 289; 1671, 15, 'The Mayor
winks at all conventicles/ &c., and
passim.

2 On Robert Boyle (1626-91),
seventh son of Richard Earl of
Cork, see his Life by Birch (1691).
Burnet's funeral sermon upon him,
which is in print, was preached on
Jan. 7, 169^, at St. Martin's-in-the-

344 The History of the Reign

CHAP. VI. perfect pattern; he was a very devout Christian, humble
and modest, almost to a fault, of a most spotless and

MS. ioo. exemplary life in all respects. | He was highly charitable ;
and was a mortified and self-denied man, that delighted
in nothing so much as in the doing good. He neglected
his person, despised the world, and lived abstracted from
all pleasures, designs, or interests. I preached his funeral
sermon, in which I gave his character so truly that I do
not think it necessary now to enlarge more upon it. The
society for philosophy grew so considerable that they
thought fit to take out a patent, which constituted them
a body by the name of the Royal Society; of which sir
Robert Murray was the first president, bishop Ward the
second, and the lord Brouncker the third 1. Their history
is writ so well by Dr. Sprat, that I will insist no more on
them, but go on to other matters.

CHAPTER VII.

ALARM AT POPERY. DESIGN OF THE FIRST
DUTCH WAR.

AFTER S. Bartholomew's day, the dissenters, seeing both
court and parliament was so much set against them, had
much consultation together what to do. Many were for
going over to Holland, and settling there with their
ministers. Others proposed New England, and the other
plantations. Upon this the earl of Bristol drew to his
house a meeting of the chief papists in town : and, after

Fields. Boyle's will contains a cordially refer their attainments to
passage dealing with the Royal the glory of the great Author of
Society, which ends thus : ' Wish- Nature and to the comfort of man-
ing them also a happy success in kind.'

their laudable attempts to discover 1 Brouncker was first President

the true nature of the works of God; under the Charter, which was dated

and praying that they and all other July 15, 1662. See note, supra 105.

searchers into physical truths may Sprat's History was published in 1667.

of King Charles II. 345

an oath of secrecy, he told them, now was the proper time CHAP. VII.
for them to make some steps towards the bringing in of
their religion : in order to that it seemed advisable for
them to take pains to procure favour to the noncon-
formists ; for that became the common name to them all,
as puritan had been before the war. They were the rather
to bestir themselves to procure a toleration for them in
general terms; that they themselves might be compre-
hended within it. The lord Aubigny seconded the motion1.
He said, it was so visibly the interest of England to make
so great a body of the trading men stay within the kingdom,
and be made easy in it, that it would have a good grace
in them to seem zealous for it, and to draw in so great
a number of those, who had been hitherto the hottest
against them to feel their care, and see their zeal to serve
them ; that he recommended to them to make this the
subject of all their discourses, and to engage all their
friends into the design. Bennet did not meet with them,
but was known to be in the secret ; as the lord Stafford
told me in the Tower a little before his death. But that 194
lord soon withdrew from those meetings : for he appre-
hended the earl of Bristol's heat, and that he might raise
a storm against them by his indiscreet meddling.

The king was so far prevailed on by them, that in Dec. 22,
December [i6]62 he set out a declaration2, that was l662'

1 Cf. supra 307, note. espressly excluding Catholics (H. M.

2 The Declaration of Dec. 22, 1662 C. Rep. vji. X67) ; it was opposed by
(Parl. Hist. iv. 259), was issued Clarendon, but supported by Ashley,
under the influence of Bennet, who urged the harm (see Aubigny's
Bristol, and Ashley. Bennet, who remark quoted in the text above)
probably compiled it, told Ormond which the Act was doing to the
that it was read twice to Clarendon, trading interest. Christie's Shaftes-
who entirely approved of it ; but bury, i. 267-280 ; ii. App. i. Claren-
Clarendon wrote to Ormond deny- don's own account (Cont. 416-425)
ing this — it was not his act, and he is clearly erroneous. Ranke, iii. 402.
would have nothing to do with it. It appears from Pepys, Sept. 3, 1662,
Lister, iii. 231-233, infra 348. In as if indulgence had been even then
Feb. 1663, Lord Robarts introduced decided upon by the Council, but
a Bill, enabling Charles to dispense that a speech from Sheldon pre-
with the Act of Uniformity, but vented its promulgation at that time.

346

The History of the Reign

CHAP. VII. generally thought to be procured by the lord Bristol : but
it had a deeper root, and was designed by the king himself.
In it the king expressed his aversion to all severities on
the account of religion, but more particularly to all san-
guinary laws ; and gave hopes both to papists and noncon-
formists, that he would find out such ways for tempering
the severity of the laws, that all his subjects should be
easy under them. The wiser of the nonconformists saw
at what all this was aimed, and so received it coldly.
But the papists went on more warmly, and were pre-
paring a scheme of a toleration for them ; and one part
of it raised great disputes among themselves. Some were
for their taking the oath of allegiance, which renounced the
pope's deposing power ; but all those that were under
a management from Rome refused this, and the inter-
nuntio at Brussells proceeded to censure those that were
for it, as enemies to the papal authority. A proposition
was also made for having none but secular priests tolerated
in England, who should be under a bishop, and under an
established government ; but that all regulars, in particular
all Jesuits, should be under the strictest penalties forbid
the kingdom. The earl of Clarendon set this on ; for he
knew well it would divide the papists among themselves.
But, though a few honest priests, such as Blackloe,
Serjant Carron, and Walsh, were for it, yet they could not
make a party among the leading men of their own side.
It was pretended that this was set on foot with a design
to divide them, and so to break their strength1. The
earl of Clarendon knew, that cardinal de Rets, for whom

1 Mention was before made of
the unpublished letters addressed by
Boyle, then Archbishop of Dublin
and Chancellor of Ireland, to Arch-
bishop Sheldon ; in one of them,
dated June 7, 1666, an account is
given of some proceedings of the
Roman Catholics on what was en-
titled the Remonstrance. It begins

thus : ' Your grace, I presume, very
well remembers a subscription of
loyalty and obedience, which was
made some three or four years since
by many of the Romish Catholic
nobility and clergy of this kingdom,
and presented to His Majesty, con-
trived and patronised by Walsh and
Carron. This remonstrance, though

of King Charles II.

347

he saw the king had a particular esteem, had come over CHAP. VII.
incognito, and had been with the king in private1. So,
to let the king see how odious a thing his being suspect
of popery would be, and what a load it would lay on his
government if it came to be believed, he got some of
his party, as sir Allain Brodrick 2 told me, to move in the
house for an act rendering ita highly penal to say the king
was a papist. And, whereas the king was made believe
that the old cavaliers were become milder with relation

a capital struck out.

carried on by them in the name
of the clergy, was disowned by a
great part, I may say the greater
part, of the ecclesiastics there ; which
hath been so long contended be-
tween them, that the remonstrance
is considered as a fit expedient to
try their loyalties.' The archbishop
proceeds to state, that when for that
purpose the remonstrants designed
to have a general meeting of their
bishops and clergy at Dublin to
decide on the adoption or rejection
of this instrument, the anti-remon-
strarits opposed it with all their
power. He adds, ' that of late one
Farel, a Dominican friar, hath brought
over some letters from the inter-
nuncius apostolicus at Brussels and
from Cardinal Barbarini at Rome, to
show the great danger of that meet-
ing and the proper detestation there-
of. The letters were intercepted by
my Lord-Lieutenant, who hath sent
copies of them to my Lord Chancellor,
and also to my Lord Arlington. I
have likewise here inclosed them to
your grace.' (A letter from Bar-
barini on this subject is to be seen
amongst the Sheldon papers.) ' I
shall make no comments upon them,
but upon the whole your grace will
perceive, that the grandees of Rome,
notwithstanding all professions to

the contrary, will not willingly allow
any obedience to the temporal magis-
trate, but in subordination to that
see to dispense with it, or disallow
it, as it shall be there thought fit.'
It appears from another letter, that
the convention of the clergy after
laying aside Walsh's remonstrance,
drew up a declaration of their own,
which being considered as both im-
perfect and ambiguous, by no means
gave satisfaction to the Lord-Lieu-
tenant. An account is given, not to
mention other works, in a Life of
King William, published at Dublin
in the year 1747, of the disputes
between the remonstrants and anti-
remonstrants ; and of the final
triumph of the latter party, which
supported the doctrine of the papal
power in temporals as well as
spirituals ; vol. i. 263-270. R.

1 De Retz visited England twice
in 1660, and, it is said, tried to in-
duce Charles to marry one of Maza-
rin's nieces. Charles, probably in
remembrance of his help to the
queen-mother in Paris, assisted him
largely. See the Memoirs of De
Retz (Petitot, 1825, Introd. 63), vol.
44 of the Collection de Memoires rela-
tifs a I'histoire de France.

2 See supra 131, and note.

348 The History of the Reign

CHAP. Vll. to popery, the lord Clarendon upon this inferred, that it
still appeared that the opinion of his being a papist would
so certainly make him odious, that for that reason the
parliament had made the spreading those reports so penal.
195 But this was taken by another handle, while some said
that this act was made on purpose, that, though the
design of bringing in popery should become ever so visible,
none should dare to speak of it. The earl of Clarendon had
a quite contrary design in it, to let the king see how fatal
the effects of any such suspicions were like to be. When
the Declaration was proposed in council, lord Clarendon
and the bishops opposed it l. But there was nothing in it
directly against law, hopes being only given of endeavours
to make all men easy under the king's government : so it
passed. The earl of Bristol carried it as a great victory ;
and he, with the duke of Buckingham, and all lord
Clarendon's enemies, declared openly against him. But
the poor priests, who had made those honest motions,
were very ill looked on by all their own party, as men
gained on design to betray them. I knew all this from
Peter Walsh himself, who was the honestest and learnedest
man I ever knew among them 2. He was of Irish extrac-
tion, and of the Franciscan order : and was indeed in all

MS. 101. points of controversy | almost wholly protestant : but he
had senses of his own, by which he excused his adhering
to the church of Rome : and maintained that with these
he could continue in the communion of that church
without sin : and he said that he was sure he did some
good, staying still on that side, but that he could do none
at all if he should come over. He thought no man ought
to forsake that religion in which he was born and bred,
unless he was clearly convinced that he must certainly be
damned if he continued in it. He was an honest and able

1 James mentions this as a special 2 Ormond had a high opinion of

cause of the king's annoyance with Walsh. H. M. C, Rep. vi. 740. He

Clarendon. Clarke's Life of James II, died in March, 1688, having signed

i. 428. a recantation of his errors; id. iii. 197.

of King Charles II. 349

man. much practised in intrigues, and knew well the CHAP. VII.
methods of the Jesuits and other missionaries. He told
me often, there was nothing which the whole popish party
feared more than an union of the church of England with
the presbyterians : they knew we grew the weaker the
more our breaches were widened ; and that the more we
were set against one another, we would mind them the
less. The papists had two maxims from which they never
departed : the one was to divide us, and the other was to
keep themselves united, and either to set on an indiscri-
minated toleration, or a general prosecution ; for so we
loved to soften the harsh word of persecution. And he
observed, not without great indignation at us for our
folly, that we, instead of uniting among ourselves and
dividing them, according to their maxims, did all we could
to keep them united and to disjoint our own body. For
he was persuaded, if the government had held an heavy
hand on the regulars and the Jesuits, and had been gentle
to the seculars, and had set up a distinguishing test,
renouncing all sort of power in the pope over the temporal 196
rights of princes, to which the regulars and the Jesuits
could never submit, that this would have engaged them
into such violent quarrels among themselves, that censures
would have been thundered at Rome against all that
should take any such test ; which would have procured much
disputing, and might have probably ended in the revolt
of the soberer part of that church 1. But he found, that,
though the earl of Clarendon and the duke of Ormond
liked the project, little regard was had to it by the
governing party at court.

The church party was alarmed at all this, and though
they were unwilling to suspect the king or the duke, yet

1 Essex, in 1673, acted in Ireland their Bishops, and, by encouraging

upon this principle : ' I made use of these litle animosities among them,

some Fryers, who all wayes have their brought them at last to that pass/

litle wrangles with the secular clergy, &c. Essex Papers (Camd. Soc.), i.

to sett up Factions against some of 138.

350

The History of the Reign

CHAP. vil. the management for popery was so visible, that in the next
Feb i66f session of parliament the king's declaration was severely
arraigned, and the authors of it were plainly enough pointed
at l. This was done chiefly by the lord Clarendon's friends,
and at this the earl of Bristol was highly displeased, and
resolved to take alt possible methods to ruin the earl of
Clarendon. He had great skill in astrology, and had
possessed the king with a high opinion of it 2 : and told the

1 Within a week from the assem-
bling of Parliament, on Feb. 27,
i66|, Charles realized formally that
his Declaration had raised the ' No
Popery ! ' cry, which increased con-
tinually in vehemence. The address
of the Commons was uncompromis-
ing. ' It will establish schism by a
law. ... It will be a cause of in-
creasing sects and sectaries, whose
numbers will weaken the Protestant
Profession so far that it will become
difficult for it to defend itself against
them ; . . . and, in time, some pre-
valent sect will, at last, contend for
an establishment, which, for aught
can be foreseen, may end in Popery '
ParL Hist. iv. 260, and the ' Petition
of Both Houses,' id. 263. Commons
Journals, Feb. 27, i66| ; Pepys, Feb.
28. Sheldon's letter to the king has
already been mentioned, supra 313,
note: ' By your Act,' he says, 'you
labour to set up that most damnable
and heretical doctrine of the Church
of Rome, whore of Babylon.' He
then points out that Charles is really
taking 'liberty to throw down the
laws of the land at your pleasure';
and he warns him against ' God's
heavy wrath and indignation upon
the kingdom in general and yourself
in particular.' It is important to
remember that at this very time
Charles was in communication with
the Pope for a national return to the
Catholic Church. He was ready to

accept the Confession of Pius IV,
decrees of the Council of Trent, &c.
But the Anglican Church was to be
national and almost independent of
the Holy See. Ranke, iii. 398.

2 It was always an objection to
his skill in astrology, that he
declared himself a Papist the year
before the Restoration, which had
disqualified him for any employ-
ment in England : but the truth was,
he had turned to qualify himself to
serve under Don John, in Flanders,
who had a very great esteem for him,
and there was little prospect of the
change that happened the year after,
nor had any almanack foretold it:
but he took care to have his children
brought up Protestants, that they
might not lie under the like dis-
advantage. D. On Digby as an
astrologer, see Clarendon, xv. 79.
Charles laughed at the science
(Lauderdale Papers] , Shaftesbury
played at it, supra 172, note. In
1669, when Louis XIV wished to
have a private agent with Charles,
he sent over the Abbe Pregnani,
astrologer and fortune-teller. The
Abbe unfortunately advised the
courtiers, Monmouth especially, to
put their money on the wrong horses,
and was immediately recalled as dis-
credited. Mignet, Negotiations, &c.,
iii. 73-76; Mrs. Ady's Madame, 278-
284; Forneron, Louise de Keroualle,
30 ; and infra 556, note.

of King Charles II. 351

duke of Buckingham, as he said to the earl of Rochester, CHAP. VII.

Wilmot, from whom I had it, that he was confident he

could lay that before the king that would totally alienate

him both from his brother and from the lord Clarendon :

for he could demonstrate by the principles of that art, that

he was to fall by his brother's means, if not by his hand :

and he was sure this would work on the king. It would so,

said the duke of Buckingham, but in another way than he

expected : for it would make the king be so afraid of

offending him, that he would do any thing rather than

provoke him. Yet the lord Bristol would lay this before

the king ; and the duke of Buckingham believed that it had

the effect ever after that he had apprehended : for though

the king never loved nor esteemed the duke, yet he seemed

to stand in some sort of awe of him. But this was not all :

the lord Bristol resolved to offer articles of impeachment of

the earl of Clarendon to the house of lords, though it was

plainly provided against by the statute against appeals in

the reign of Henry the fourth. Yet both the duke of

Buckingham and the lord Bristol, the fathers of these two

lords, had broke through that in the former reign. So the

lord Bristol drew his impeachment, and carried it to the

king, who took much pains on him in a soft and gentle

manner to persuade him from it. But he would not be

wrought on ; and he told the king plainly, that, if he forsook

him, he would raise such disorders that all England should 197

feel them, and the king himself should not be without a large

share in them. The king, as the earl of Lauderdale told

me, who said he had it from himself, said he was so provoked

at this that he durst not trust himself in answering it, but

went out of the room, and sent the lord Aubigny to soften

him : but all was in vain. It is very probable that the lord

Bristol knew the secret of the king's religion, and that both

made him so bold and the king so fearful. The next day July TO,

he carried the charge to the house of lords1. It was of

1 Lords Journals for July 10, 1663, attack by a private person upon
xi- 555- The possibility of such an the greatest officer of state excited

352

The History of the Reign

CHAP. VII. a very mixed nature : in one part he charged the lord
Clarendon with raising jealousies, and spreading reports of
the king's being a papist : and yet in the other articles he
charged him with a correspondence with the court of Rome,
in order to the making the lord Aubigny a cardinal, and
several other things of a very strange nature ; and as soon as
he put it in, he, it seems, either repented of it, or at least
was prevailed with to abscond, and he was ever 'after that
looked on as a man capable of the highest extravagancies
possible. He made the matter worse by a letter that he
writ to the lords, in which he expressed his fear of the
danger the king was in by the duke's having of guards.
Proclamations went out for discovering him, but he kept
out of the way till the storm was over. The parliament
expressed a firm resolution to maintain the act of uniformity.
And the king being run much in debt, they gave him four
subsidies, being willing to return to the ancient way of
taxes by subsidies J. But these were so evaded, and brought
in so little money, that the court resolved never to have
recourse to that method of raising money any more, but to
betake themselves for the future to the assessment begun

MS. 102. in the war. And the convocation gave at the same time
four subsidies, which proved as heavy on them as they were
light on the temporalty. This was the last aid that the
spiritualty gave : for the whole proving so inconsiderable,
and yet so unequally heavy on the clergy, it was resolved

inexpressible astonishment among
those accustomed to the idea of
royal authority as it existed in
France. Jusserand, A French Am-
bassador^ &c., 105. The mob, we
learn from the dispatches of De
Cominges, was on the side of Bristol,
as ' le champion de la patrie.' Claren-
don was supposed to be ' irrecover-
ably lost.' Pepys, April 28, 1663.
For the scene when Bristol read
his accusation, see Ranke, iii. 409.
Bristol's fortunes declined after this
fiasco, and in 1670 we find him

petitioningthe king for support. Cal.
St. P. Dom. 1670, 504. Cf. Lister,
iii. 245. Upon Aubigny, see supra

243> 3<>7-

1 'The House is as zealous as ever
for His Majesty, but is sensible also
of the necessities of the country.'
Marvell, June 6, 1663 (Grosart's ed.
ii. 92). Upon the difference between
a 'subsidy' and an ' assessment/ as
imposed by the Commonwealth, see
Macaulay, iii. 607 v Library ed.) ; and
compare Hallarn, Hist, of Engl. (sm.
ed.), i. 371, note.

of King Charles II.

353

on1 hereafter to tax church benefices as temporal estates CHAP. VII,
were ; which proved indeed a lighter burden, but was not
so honourable as when it was given by themselves: yet
interest prevailing above the point of honour, they ac-
quiesced in it, though the convocations being no more
necessary to the crown made that there was less regard had
to them afterwards. They were often discontinued and
prorogued : and when they met, it was only for form. The
parliament did pass another act that was very acceptable
to the court, and that shewed a confidence in the king, for
repealing the act of triennial parliaments 2, which had been

1 It was first settled by a verbal
agreement between Archbishop Shel-
don and the Lord Chancellor Clar-
endon, and tacitly given into by the
clergy in general, as a great ease to
them in taxations. The first public
act of any kind relating to it, was an
Act of Parliament in 1665, by which
the clergy were, in common with
the laity, charged with the tax given
in that Act, and were discharged
from the payment of the subsidies
they had granted before in Convoca-
tion ; but in this Act of Parliament
of 1665, there is an express saving
of the right of the clergy to tax
themselves in Convocation, if they
think fit; but that has never been
done since, nor attempted, as I know
of, and the clergy have been con-
stantly from that time charged with
the laity in all public aids to the
Crown by the House of Commons.
In consequence of this (but from
what period I cannot say), without
the intervention of any particular
law for it, except what I shall
mention presently, the clergy (who
are not Lords of Parliament) have
assumed, and, without any objection,
enjoyed the privilege of voting in
the election of members of the House
of Commons, in virtue of their ec-

YOL. I. A a

clesiastical freeholds. This having
constantly been practised from the
time it first began, there are two
Acts of Parliament which suppose
it to be now a right. The Acts are
the roth of Anne, chap. 23 ; and the
i8th of George II, chap. 18. And
here it is best, the whole of this
matter should remain without further
question or consequence of any kind;
as it now stands, both the Church
and the State have a benefit from
it. Gibson, Bishop of London, said
to me, that this was the greatest
alteration in the constitution ever
made, without an express law. O.
For another clear account of what
was actuallydone, see Echard, 818,
quoted in Part. Hist. iv. 309. Burnet
antedates this important change by
nearly two years. It took place
during the session ending March 2,
i66£. See Commons Journals, Nov.

25, 1664 ; Feb. 3, i66f ; Lords Jour-
nals, xi. 654.

2 ' Mr. Prin is the man against it,
comparing it to the idol whose head
was of gold, and his body and legs and
feet of different metal.' Pepys, March

26, 1664. Vaughan, who suggested
the compromise of 1662, we read,
' pealed it away about Triennials an
hour and a half by the clock, spake

354

The History of the Reign

198

April 5,
1664.

CHAP. VII. obtained with so much difficulty, and was clogged with so
many clauses, that they seemed to transfer the power from
the crown to the people, and thata when carried in the
year 1641 , was thought the greatest security that the people
had for all their other liberties, was now given up without
a struggle, or any clauses for a certainty of parliaments,
besides a general one, that there should be a parliament
called within three years after the dissolution of the present
parliament, and so ever afterwards ; but without any severe
clauses in case the act was not observed.

As for our foreign negotiations, I know nothing in
particular concerning them. Secretary Bennet had them
all in his hands : and I had no confidence with any about
him. Our concerns with Portugal were public, and I know
so secrets about these.

By a melancholy instance to our private family, it
appeared that France was taking all possible methods to do
every thing that the king desired. The common wealth Js-
men were now thinking that they saw the stream of the
nation beginning to turn against the court : and upon that

1662-1665. they were meeting, and laying plots to retrieve their lost
game 1. One of these being taken, and he apprehending

a \which] wanted to complete the sense.

so desperately home that he outshot
Sir R. T. [Temple] ten bowes length,
but all in vaine (cf. id. March 28,
1664) : the Bill is ingrossed, marcht
up to the Lords, and soe farewell
Magna Charta.' Verney MSS., March
31, i66f. The Bill received the
royal assent, April 5, 1664. During
the last four years of his reign
Charles, thanks to the absence of
* any clauses for a certainty of par-
liaments,' ruled without a parliament.
Cf. supra 277. An attempt was
made on Feb. 18, i66|, by Sir
Richard Temple, to pass a Bill for
the frequent holding of parliaments,

but it met with no support. ParL
Hist. iv. 410.

1 Lord Clarendon, in an unpub-
lished letter, addressed to Arch-
bishop Sheldon about this time,
expresses his apprehensions of
a design for the surprisal of the
Tower of London; but adds, that
he relies on the honesty of the
lieutenant of that fortress, he being
altogether under the direction of
Monk. R.

A year before this Sir Robert
Harley wrote : ' Being here [Dover]
I have learned that there is most cer-
tainly a very greate designe amongst

of King Charles II.

355

that he was in danger, begged his life of the king, and said, CHAP. VII.
if he might be assured of his pardon, he would tell where
my uncle Wariston was, who was then in Rouen : for he
agreed so ill with the air of Hamborough, that he was
advised to go to France ; and this man was on the secret *.
So the king sent one to the court of France, desiring he
might be put in his hands : and this was immediately done :
and no notice was sent to my uncle to go out of the way,
as is usual in such cases, when a person is not charged with
assassinations or any infamous action, but only with crimes
of state. He was sent over, and kept some months in the
Tower ; and from that was sent to Scotland, as shall be May, 1663.
told afterwards 2.

the fanaticks, commonwealth men,
and those kind of people, and they
are resolved of some greate and des-
perate action. This I have from a
greate sectary in this ship who was
pressed on poynt of conscience to
stay to be instrumental.' Portland
MSS. vol. in., H. M. C. Rep. xiv.
App. ii. 270. For detailed accounts
of these plots (which were largely
manufactured by informers, Cal. St.
P. Dom. 1662-4, 279, 293, 331, 362,
482, &c., &c.), see Portland MSS.,
H. M. C. Rep. xiii. App. ii. 144 ; letter
of Sir T. Osborne to the Mayor of
Newcastle, Oct. 9, 1663 ; and Cal. St.
P. Dom. 1662-4, passim. See also
the king's speech at the opening of
the session, March 16, i66|, Parl.
Hist. iv. 289 ; and especially Reresby's
Memoirs (ed. Cartwright), 58. A
special Commission sat at York to
try the prisoners of the Farnly Wood
rising (infra 366) in January, 1664,
and fifteen were executed. Bennett
to Buckingham and Ormond, Oct. 3,
Oct. 14, Nov. 24, 1663, Jan. 20, 1664.
Miscellanea Aulica, 303, 307, 326,

33°-

1 For the case of Warriston, see
Cal St. P. Dom. 1663. The prisoner

who informed of his hiding-place
was a Major Johnston, possibly
a relative, and Alexander Murray
was the king's messenger to Louis
XIV. Wodrow, i. 355.

2 This kidnapping went on
throughout the reign. On June 21,
1660, an order was issued that 'in case
Sir George Deyrick, the king's agent
in Flanders, shall bring into Dunkirk
any person or persons who were of
the king's pretended judges, such
persons shall be sent to England by
the next ship and placed in the
Tower.' See also, especially, Cal.
St. P. Dom. 1660-1, 420, 550. Bark-
stead, Okey, and Corbett were thus
kidnapped in March, 1662, and
brought over for execution. Id. 316,
344. See Ludlow's Memoirs, ii. 330-
390, and especially the note to 330 ;
Cal. St. P. Dom. 1662-4, 380, 398, 476,
505, 661. Temple describes at length
his attempts, in 1670, to get Joyce
of Holmby House fame, then a
refugee in Holland, into his hands,
and their failure. Works, ii. 138.
In 1684, Sir T. Armstrong was taken
at Leyden, brought over, and exe-
cuted. Id. ii. 418.

A a

356

The History of the Reign

CHAP. VII. The design of a war with Holland was now working ;
and I have been very positively assured by statesmen of
both sides, that the French set it on in a very artificial
manner l : for while they encouraged us to insist on some
extravagant demands, they at the same time pressed the
Dutch not to yield to them : and as they put them in hope
that if a rupture should follow they would assist them ac-
cording to their alliance, so they assured us that they would
do us no hurt. Downing2 was then employed in Holland,
a crafty fawning man, who was ready to turn to every side
that was uppermost, and to betray those who by their
former friendship and services thought they might depend
on him ; as he did some of the regicides, whom he got into
his hands under trust, and then delivered them up. He
1657- had been Cromwell's ambassador in Holland, where he had
offered personal affronts both to the king and the duke:
199 yet he had by some base practices got himself to be so
effectually recommended by the duke of Albemarle, that
all former offences were forgiven, and he was sent over to

1 See infra 408, note.

2 Sir George Downing married
Frances Howard, sister to the first
Earl of Carlisle of that family, who
had been very instrumental in the
restoration of the king, who not only
protected him, but answered for his
good behaviour for the future. But
the bishop delights in throwing dirt
upon the Duke of Albemarle, and
making a mystery of everything,
though never so plain and well
known. D. In 1656, Downing, who
had formerly been a preacher and
chaplain to Okey's regiment (Lud-
low, ii. 330), was ' loud against the
Dutch' (Burton's Diary, i. 181), and
was made Resident at the Hague by
Cromwell in 1657. When the Re-
storation became certain, he made
terms with Charles by showing him
Thurlow's despatches and betraying
other official secrets. Remaining as

Resident after the Restoration, with
a knighthood, he kidnapped Bark-
stead, Okey, and Corbett in 1662 ;
and was created a baronet in 1663
(Clarendon, Cont. 516, and Diet. Nat.
Biog.}. Sir W. Temple (Works, iii.
93, 1754), says that he did his ut-
most to bring on war. See Pontalis,
Jean de Witt, i. 323, 328. Colbert
de Croissy described him to Louvois
in 1671, as 'le plus grand querel-
leur des diplomates de son temps.'
Id. ii. 136. ' So stingy a fellow,' 'per-
fidious rogue,' ' ungrateful villain,'
&c., are Pepys's epithets, though on
May 27, 1667, he bears witness
to his ability and business quali-
ties. See Sibley's Hutchinson, 72.
There are a great many important
letters from Downing \vhile em-
ployed in Holland in the Egerton
MSS. (Brit. Mus.). He died in
1684.

of King Charles II. 357

Holland as the king's ambassador, whose behaviour towards CHAP. VII.
himself the States had observed. So they had reason to
conclude he was sent over with no good intent, and that he
was capable of managing a bad design, and very ready to
undertake it. There was no visible cause of war *. A com-
plaint of a ship taken was ready to have been satisfied, but
Downing hindered it. So it was plain the king hated
them 2 ; and fancied they were so feeble, and the English
were so much superior to them, that a war would humble
them, and bring them to an entire submission and depend-
ence on him in all things. The States had treated and
presented the king with great magnificence, and at a vast
charge, during the time that he had stayed among them,
after England had declared for him. And, as far as appear-
ances could go, the king was sensible of it : insomuch that
the party for the prince of Orange were not pleased, because
their applications to him could not prevail | to make him MS. 103.
interpose either in the behalf of himself or of his friends, to
get a his party again put in places of trust and command.
The king put that off, as not proper to be pressed by him at
that time. But neither then nor afterwards did he bestir
himself in that matter ; though, if either gratitude or interest
had been of force, and if these had not been overruled by
some more prevalent considerations, he must have been in-
clined to make some returns for the services the late prince
of Orange did him : and must have seen what a figure he
must make by having the prince of Orange tied to him in
interest as much as he was by blood 3. France and popery

a the perpetual edict to be repealed, or all struck out.

1 See infra 389, note. true but scurrilous cartoons upon

2 Charles was always forcible, and him published in Holland. Pepys,
often decidedly coarse, in his ex- Nov. 28, 1663.

pressions of dislike to the Dutch. 3 From Lord Arlington's letters

See his letter to his sister in Feb. to Sir William Temple, it should

1669 ; Dalrymple's Memoirs, i. 66 appear, that the king was not in-

(ed. 1740). He had at present a attentive to the interests of the

special cause of annoyance in the prince, so far as was consistent with

358

The History of the Reign

CHAP. VII. were the true springs of all these counsels. It was the
interest of the king of France that the armies of the States
might fall under such a feebleness, that they should not be
in condition to make a vigorous resistance, when he should
be ready either to invade them or to fall into Flanders, which
he was resolved to do whensoever the king of Spain should
die. The French did thus set on the war between the
English and the Dutch, hoping that our fleets should
mutually weaken one another so much, that the naval force
of France, which was increasing very considerably, should
be near an equality to them when they should be shattered
by a war \ The States were likewise the greatest strength
of the protestant interest, and were therefore to be humbled.
So, in order to make the king more considerable both at
200 home and abroad, the court resolved to prepare for a war,
and to seek for such colours as might serve to justify it.
The earl of Clarendon was not let into the secret of this
design, and was always against it 2. But his interest was now
sunk low, and he began to feel the power of an imperious
mistress over an amorous king, who was so disgusted of
the queen that he abandoned himself wholly to amour and
luxury.

This was, as far as I could penetrate into it, the state of
the court for the first four years after the restoration.
I was in the court a great part of the years [i6]62, [i6]63 3,
and [i6]64, and was as inquisitive as I could possibly be,
and had more than ordinary occasions to hear and see
a great deal *.

York's war, not the king's.

3 This may be reconciled with his
son's account before mentioned, of
the bishop's journey to England in
1663, supposing that he came hither
in the early part of that year, which
would be, according to the reckon-
ing of those days, called 1662 till the
25th day of March. He was then
nineteen years of age. R.

* Cockburn, Specimen of Remarks,
&c., 66, details Burnet's industry in

the relations subsisting between
England and the States. R.

1 See notes supra 356 ; infra 408.

2 Pepys says, on fair authority,
Dec. 15, 1664, that Clarendon was
scarcely consulted regarding the
Dutch war. ' Only he is a good
minister in other respects, and the
king cannot be without him.' Claren-
don himself, Cont. 449, describes
his vehement opposition to the war,
which he says was the Duke of

of King Charles II. 359

CH. VIII.

CHAPTER VIII.

SCOTLAND, 1663-1666. SUPREMACY OF
LAUDERDALE.

But now I return back to the affairs of Scotland. The
earl of Middleton, after a delay of some months, came up
to London, and was very coldly received by the king. The
earl of Lauderdale moved that a Scottish council should
be called 2. The lord Clarendon got this to be delayed
a fortnight. When it met, the lord Lauderdale accused the Feb. 5,
earl of Middleton of many malversations in the great trust l66^'
he had been in, which he aggravated severely. The lord
Middleton desired he might have what was objected to him
in writing ; and when he had it he sent it to Scotland ; so
that it was six weeks before he had his answer ready ; all
on design to gain time. He excused some errors in point
of form, that, having served in a military way, he under-
stood not so exactly what belonged to law and form : but
insisted on this, that he designed nothing but that the
king's service might go on, and that his friends might be
taken care of, and his enemies be humbled, and that so
loyal a parliament might be encouraged, who were full of
zeal and affection to his service ; that, in complying with

obtaining information. It is ex- garding the surrender of Charles I

tremely curious that Burnet should to the English; although, according

have omitted all mention of the Cor- to the statement of his agent, William

poration Act of Dec. 1661. For the Sharp, who had seen them, they

First Conventicle Act of May, 1664, were only 'unauthenticated doubles'

see infra 366, and Statutes at Large, (Lauderdale Papers, i. 125, 128).

iii. 290. They were given by Chieslie, the

* Lauderdale was in some danger Secretary to the Commission, to

from the existence of compromising Middleton, and by him, in 1670, to

letters, included in the proceedings Lauderdale,when they were burned ;

of the Scotch Commissioners re- Mackenzie's Memoirs (1821), 49.

360 The History of the Reign

CH. VIII. them, he had kept every thing so entirely in his majesty's
power, that the king was under no difficulties by any thing
they had done. In the mean while Sheldon was very
earnest with the king to forgive the lord Middleton's errors ;
otherwise he concluded the change so newly made in the
church would be so ill supported that it must fall to the
ground. The duke of Albemarle, who knew Scotland,
and so had more credit on that head than on any other,
pretended that the lord Middleton's party was that on
which the king could only rely : he magnified both their
power and their zeal, and represented the earl of Lauder-
dale's friends as cold and hollow in the king's service. And
to support all this, the letters that came from Scotland
were full of the insolencies of the presbyterians, and of the
dejection the bishops and their friends were under. Sharp
was prevailed on to go up. He promised to all the earl of
201 Middleton's friends that he would stick firm to him, and
that he would lay before the king that his standing or falling
must be the standing or falling of the church. Of this the
earl of Lauderdale had advice sent him. Yet when he
came to London, and saw that the king was alienated from
the lord Middleton, he resolved to make great submissions
to the lord Lauderdale. When he reproached him for his
engagements with the earl of Middleton, he denied all ; and
said he had never gone further than what was decent, con-
sidering his post. He also denied he had writ to the king
in his favour. But the king had given the original letter to
the lord Lauderdale, who upon that shewed it to Sharp ;
with which he was so struck that he fell a crying in a most
abject manner. He begged pardon for it, and said, what
could a company of poor men refuse to the earl of Middle-
ton, who had done so much for them, and had them so
entirely in his power. The lord Lauderdale, upon this,
comforted him, and said he would forgive them all that was
past, and would serve them and the church at another rate
than lord Middleton was capable of doing. So Sharp
became wholly his. Of all this lord Lauderdale gave me

of King Charles II. 361

a full relation the next day, and shewed me the papers CH. vni.
that passed between- lord Middleton and him. Sharp
thought he had | escaped well. The earl of Middleton MS. 104.
treated them too much as his creatures, and assumed
a great deal to himself, and exercised a sort of authority
over them, which he was uneasy under, though he durst
not well complain of it, or resist it : whereas he reckoned,
that lord Lauderdale, knowing the suspicions that lay on
him as favouring the presbyterians, would have less credit
and courage in opposing any thing that should be necessary
for their support. It proved that in this he judged right :
for the lord Lauderdale, that he might maintain himself at
court, and with the church of England, was really more
compliant and easy to every proposition the bishops made,
than he would otherwise have been if he had been always
of the episcopal party J. But all he did that way was
against his heart, except when his passions were vehemently
stirred, which a very slight occasion would readily do. After
the earls of Lauderdale and Middleton were writing papers
and answers for above three months 2, an accident happened
which hastened lord Middleton's disgrace. The earl of
Lauderdale laid before the king the unjust proceedings in
the matter of laying on fines ; and to make all that party
sure to himself, he procured a letter from the king to the
council in Scotland, ordering them to issue out a proclama-
tion for superseding the execution of the act of fining till

1 See supra 185, note. The feel- ridiculing the Presbyterians. See

ing, if it ever existed, soon wore Marvell, Nostradamus's Prophecy : —

off. Presbyterianism was far more <When an old Scotch Covenanter

' against his heart/ as it was against shall be

the heart of almost all the Scotch The champion of tne English Hier-

nobles, who, if they wanted to con- archy/

tinue in public employment, were 2 ^ ^ Jhe attack and

compelled to appear to espouse it, , . , . r „ .

t. . j i , defence may be read in full m

and whose power it had largely ,,' , . , ,, . 0 ,,.

. Mackenzie's Memoirs, 78-113; Mis-

transferred to the middle classes. ... . ' , , ,

cellama Auhca (1700) : the Lauder-

Clarendon states (Cont. 96), what , . _ A _: ' A, u TM-CC-

y ' . .. dale Papers, and the Sheldon MSS.

the Lauderdale Papers sufficiently . , JL ,. .

., g in the Bodleian,
show, that he lost no opportunity of

362

The History of the Reign

CH. VIII. further order. The privy council being then for the greater
202 Part composed of lord Middleton's friends, it was pretended
by some of them, that as long as he was the king's com-
missioner, they could receive and execute no orders from
the king but through his hands. So they writ to him,
desiring him to represent to the king that this would be an
affront on the proceedings of parliament, and would raise
the spirits of a party that ought to be kept down. Lord
Middleton writ back, that he had laid the matter before the
king, and that he, considering better of it, had ordered,
that no proceeding should be made upon his former letter.
This occasioned a hot debate in council. It was said
a letter under the king's hand could not be countermanded
but from the same hand. So the council wrote to know
the king's mind in the matter. The king protested he
knew nothing of it, and that lord Middleton had not spoke
one word on the subject to him. He upon that sent for
him, and chid him so severely, that lord Middleton con-
cluded from it that he was ruined. Yet he always stood
upon it, that he had the king's order by word of mouth for
what he had done, though he was not so cautious as to
procure an instruction under his hand for his warrant. It
is very probable that he spoke of it to the king when his
head was full of somewhat else, so that he did not mind it ;
and that to get rid of the earl of Middleton, he bid him do
whatsoever he proposed, without reflecting much on it ; for
the king was at that time often so distracted in his thoughts,
that he was not at all times master of himself. The queen-
mother had brought over from France one Mrs. Stewart l,
reckoned a very great beauty, afterwards married to

1 Daughter of Walter Stewart,
son of Walter, second Lord Blan-
tyre ; born 1647 ; married March,
1667 ; died 1702. Upon her arrival
in England, in 1662, she was ap-
pointed maid of honour to the queen.
Jesse, Memoirs, &c., iv. 128. Mrs.
Ady, Madame, 102, 112, &c. Sand-

wich told Pepys that 'as soon as the
king can get a husband for Mrs.
Stewart, my Lady Castlemaine's
nose will be out of joint.' Pepys,
July 22, 1663. In November the
king was 'besotted' upon her. Id.
Nov. 9, 1663.

of King Charles II. 363

the duke of Richmond. The king was believed to be CH. vni.
deeply in love with her ; yet his former mistress kept her
ground still, and what with her humours and jealousy,
and what with this new amour, the king had very little
quiet, between both their passions and his own. Towards
the end of May the king called many of his English
counsellors together, and did order all the papers that had
passed between the earls of Lauderdale and Middleton to
be read to them. When that was done, many of them who
were Middleton's friends said much in excuse of his errors,
and of the necessity of continuing him still in that high
trust. But the king said his errors were so great and so
many, that the credit of his affairs must suffer, if he con-
tinued them any longer in such hands. Yet he promised
them he would be still kind to him ; for he looked on him
as a very honest man. A few days after that, secretary
Morrice was sent to him with a warrant under the king's
hand, requiring him to deliver up his commission, which he
did ; and so his ministry came to an end, after a sort of
a reign of much violence and injustice : for he was become 203
very imperious. He and his company were delivered up
to so much excess, and to such a madness of frolic and
intemperance, that as Scotland had never seen any thing
like it, so upon his disgrace there was a general joy over
the kingdom, though that lasted not long ; for those that
came after him grew worse than ever he was like to be.
He had lived in great magnificence, which made him
acceptable to many * : and he was a firm friend, though

1 Hurt perhaps in his fortune by which runs through the estate, this

that; for he retired after his disgrace earl built a very handsome large

to the friary near Guildford, to one bridge, calling it by his own name,

Dalmahoy there, a genteel and gene- and was the present he made to Mr.

rous man, who was of Scotland, had Dalmahoy for entertaining him at

been gentleman of the horse to this place. The bridge is now down ;

William, Duke Hamilton (killed at but I remember it standing with

the battle of Worcester), married brass plates upon it, that had Midle-

that duke's widow, and by her had toun Bridge inscribed upon them,

this house, and a considerable estate This gentleman, Dalmahoy, being

adjoining to it, where, over the river, much in the interest of the Duke of

364

The History of the Reign

CH. viii. a violent enemy. The earl of Rothes1 was declared the
king's commissioner ; but the earl of Lauderdale would
not trust him 2 ; so he went down with him, and kept
him too visibly in a dependence on him, for all his high
character.

One of the first things done in this session of parliament

July 22, was the execution of my unfortunate uncle 3. He was so
disordered both in body and mind, that it was a reproach
to a government to proceed against him. His memory
was so gone that he did not know his own children. He
was brought before the parliament, to hear what he had to
say why his execution should not be awarded. He spoke
long, but in a broken and disordered strain, which his
enemies fancied was put on to create pity4. So he was
sentenced to die. The presbyterians came about him, and

May 29,
1663.

3<

York, and a man to be relied upon,
and being a candidate for the town
of Guildford, at the election of the
Parliament after the long one in
1678, and being opposed, as I think,
by the famous Algernon Sydney,
the Duke of York came from Windsor
to Dalmahoy's house to countenance
his election, and appeared for him
in the open court, where the elec-
tion was taken. O. Middleton suc-
ceeded Teviot (on whose death and
reputation for personal bravery,
see Pepys, June 2-6, 1664) as
governor of Tangier, in April, 1667
(Pepys, April 15, 1667), and died
there of a fall, when drunk, in
1674.

1 Rothes became also Treasurer, in
succession to Crawford who was
persuaded to retire.

2 He left Robert Moray (see supra,
104), who resigned the Justice Clerk-
ship for the purpose (Cal. St. P. Dom.
1662-4, 179), as his deputy, June 5.
The correspondence between them
is in the Lauderdale Papers, and is
of extreme interest.

3 Was he. hanged or beheaded?
A fit uncle for such a bishop. S.
He was beheaded. See Carstares's
State Papers, p. 92. R. Lauder-
dale, who was present, says, 'On
Wednesday Archibald Johnston was
hanged at the cross of Edn. ac-
cording to his most just sentence.'
Lauderdale to Moray, July 28,
1663.

* 'According to former order,
Arch. Johnston was brought into
heare what he could say against
execution. He did crying reade out
of a paper. That his memorie was
lost, that he remembered neither
matter of law nor matter of fact, nor
a word of the Bible.' Lauderdale to
Moray, July 10, 1663. ' His speech
at the scaffold was stark-staring,
nought.' Id. See Cal. St. P. Dom.
1662-4, 141. Lauderdale adds that,
at Burnefs importunity, he wrote
' 3 or 4 insignificant lines ' to Moray
about him, but refused to ask the
king for a reprieve. Mackenzie,
134, 135 J Wodrow, i. 356~358 (ed.
1828).

of King Charles II. 365

prayed for him in a style like an upbraiding of God with CH. VIII.
the services he had done him. His deportment was unequal,
as might be expected from a man in his condition. Yet
when the day of his execution came, he was very serene :
he was cheerful, and seemed fully satisfied with his death.
He read a speech twice on the scaffold, that to my know-
ledge he composed himself, in which he justified all the
proceedings in the covenant, and asserted his own sincerity ;
but condemned his joining with Cromwell and the sectaries,
though even in that his intentions had been sincere for the
good of his country and the security of religion. Lord
Lauderdale had lived in great friendship with him : but he
saw the king was so set against him, that he, who at all
times took more care of himself than of his friends, would
not in so critical a time seem to favour a man whom the
presbyterians had set up as a sort of an idol among them,
and on whom they did depend more than on any other
then alive.

| The business of the parliament went on as the lord MS. 105.
Lauderdale directed. The whole proceeding in the matter June 26-
of the billeting was laid open1. It appeared that the ^^^
parliament had not desired it, but had been led into it by
being made believe that the king had a mind to it ; and of
all the members of parliament not above twelve could be
prevailed on to own, that they had advised the earl of
Midletoun to ask leave of the king for it, whose private
suggestions he had represented to the king as the desire of
the parliament. So this finished his disgrace, as well as it
occasioned the putting all his party out of employments. 204
While they were going on with their affairs, they under- Royal
stood that an act had passed in the parliament of England ^ssenlt'
against all conventicles 2, empowering justices of peace to 1664.

1 A Commission was appointed to Parliament of Scotland, vii. 450, 460,

investigate the matter on June 26; 471.

it reported on July 24 ; and the Act 2 The Conventicle Act passed the

rescinding the Billetting Act was Commons and went to the Lords in

passed on Sept. 9. Acts of the June, 1663 ; but Parliament was pro-

366

The History of the Reign

CH. VIII. convict offenders without juries ; which was thought a great
breach on the security of the English constitution, and
a raising the power of justices to a very arbitrary pitch.
Any meeting for religious worship at which five were
present more than the family, was declared a conventicle ;
and every person above sixteen, that was present, was to
lie three months in prison, or to pay 5/. for the first offence ;
six months for the second offence, or 2o/. fine ; and for the
third offence, being convict by a jury, he was to be banished
to any plantation, except New England or Virginia, or to
pay an ioo/. All people were amazed at this severity 2 ; but
the bishops in Scotland took heart upon it, and resolved

July 10, to copy from it. So an act passed there, almost in the
same terms : and, at the passing it, lord Lauderdale in a
long speech expressed great zeal for the church. There
was some little opposition made to it by the earl of
Kincardine3, who was an enemy to all persecution ; but
though some few voted against it, it was carried by a great
majority.

Another act passed, declaring the constitution of a
national synod 4, that it was to be composed of the arch-
bishops and bishops, of all deans, and of two to be deputed
from every presbytery ; of which the moderator of the
presbytery named by the bishop was to be one. All

1663.

Aug. 22,
l663.

rogued from July 27, 1663, to March
21, 1664, and therefore it did not re-
ceive the royal assent until May 17,
1664. The Scotch Act was passed
on July 10, 1663. For the Eng-
lish Act in full, see Statutes at
Large, iii. 290. For the Scotch, Acts
of the Parliament of Scotland, vii.

455-

2 ('This Act was temporary [for
three years, Commons Journals, June
30, 1663, and infra, 490] ; it was
made upon occasion of that general
disaffection that appeared about this
time among the dissenters in Eng-
land and Scotland. In the north

the dissenters broke out into actual
rebellion, and assembled at Farnly
Wood in Yorkshire [supra 355, note].
They had their agents also in Lon-
don, and an oath of secrecy passed
amongst them. They assured their
friends, that the insurrection would
be general, and that they expected
forces from Holland and other coun-
tries to join them.' Salmon's Ex-
amination of Bishop Burnefs Hisf.

553-)

3 Upon Kincardine, see supra
188.

* Acts of the Parliament of Scot'
land, vii. 465.

of King Charles II. 367

things were to be proposed to this court by the king or his CH. VIII.
commissioner ; and whatsoever should be agreed to by the
majority and the president, the archbishop of St. Andrews,
was to have the force of an ecclesiastical law when it
should be confirmed by the king. Great exceptions were
taken to this act. The church was restrained from meddling
with any thing, but as it should be laid before them by the
king ; which was thought a severe restraint, like that of the
proponentibus legatis so much complained of at Trent. The
putting the negative not in the whole bench of the bishops,
but singly in the president, was thought very irregular.
But it passed with so little observation, that the lord
Lauderdale could scarce believe it was penned as he found
it to be, when I told him of it. Primrose told me Sharp
put that clause in with his own hand. The inferior clergy
complained that the power was wholly taken from them ;
since, as one of their deputies was to be a person named by
the bishops, so, the moderators claiming a negative vote
as the bishops' delegates, the other half were only to con- 205
sist of persons to whom they gave their vote. The act was
indeed so penned, that nobody moved for a national synod
when they saw how it was to be constituted.

Two other acts passed in favour of the crown. The
parliament of England had laid great impositions on all
things imported from Scotland : so, the parliament being
speedily to be dissolved, and not having time to regulate
such impositions on English goods as might force the
English to bring that matter to a just balance, they put
that confidence in the king, that they left the laying of
impositions on all foreign merchandize wholly to the king 1.
The other act was looked on but as a pompous compliment : Nov. 16,
and so it passed without any observation or opposition 2.

1 Acts of the Parliament of Scotland, 2 Nov. 16, 1663, Acts of the Parlia-

vii. 471. The Scotch had succeeded ment of Scotland, vii. 554. The Act of

in 1661 in obtaining the suspension Supremacy was passed on the same

of the Navigation Act in favour of day. Id. No use was made of the

Scotch subjects. Cal. St. P. Dom. former one until the disbanding, in

1661-2, 74, 136. 1667, of the former standing forces.

368

The History of the Reign

CH. viii. In it they made an offer to the king of an army of 20,000
foot and 2,000 horse, to be ready upon summons, to march
with forty days' provision into any part of his majesty's
dominions, to oppose invasions, to suppress insurrections,
or for any other cause in which his authority, power, or
greatness was concerned. Nobody dreamt that any use
was ever to be made of this ; yet the earl of Lauderdale
had his end in it, to let the king see what use the king
might make of Scotland, if he should intend to set up
arbitrary government in England. He told the king that
the earl of Midletoun and his party understood not what
was the greatest service that Scotland could do him : they
had not much treasure to offer him : the only thing they
were capable of doing was to furnish him with a good army
when his affairs in England should require it. And of this
he made great use afterwards to advance himself, though
it could never have signified any thing to the advancing
the king's ends 1. So easy was it to draw the parliament
of Scotland to pass acts of the greatest consequence in
a hurry, without considering the effects they might have.
After these acts were passed, the parliament was dissolved,
which gave a general satisfaction to the country, for they
were a furious set of people. The government was left in
the earl of Glencairn's hands, who began, now that he had
little favour at court, to set himself on all occasions to
oppose Sharp's violent motions. The earl of Rothes
stuck firm to Sharp, and was recommended by him to the
bishops of England as the only man that supported their
interests. The king at this time restored lord Lorn to

1 Lauderdale's fortune was now
made. In November, 1663, Bennet
writing to Ormond, says: ' My Lord
Lauderdale came last night hither.
The great things that are done in
Scotland, the vindication of His
Majesty's authority in all points, have
made him very welcome to those
who cared not much for him before.
I confess ingenuously, for my part,

he has converted me, which I am
glad to be, so it is to His Majesty's
advantage.' Miscellanea Aulica, 320.
Cf. Lauderdale Papers, i. 183, 187, 190.
Pepys, on March 2, i66|,' records
a report made to him, 'that my Lord
Lauderdale is never from the King's
eare nor council, and that he is a
most cunning fellow.'

of King Charles II. 369

his grandfather's honour, of being earl of Argyll, passing CH. VIII.
over his father ; and gave him a great part of the estate,
leaving the rest to be sold for the payment of debts,
which did not rise in value to above a third part of them.
This occasioned a great outcry, that continued long to
pursue him.

| Sharp went up to London to complain of the lord M$. to6.
Glencairn and of the privy council ; where, he said, there ^£ l664'
was such a remissness, and so much popularity appeared
on all occasions, that unless some more spirit were put
in the administration, it would be impossible to preserve
the church1. That was the word always used, as if there had
been a charm in it. He moved that a letter might be writ,
giving him the precedence of the lord chancellor. This
was thought an inexcusable piece of vanity : for in Scot-
land, when there was no commissioner all matters passed
through the lord chancellor's hands, who by act of parlia-
ment was to preside in all courts, and was considered as
representing the king's person. He also moved, that the
king would grant a special commission to some persons
for executing the laws relating to the church. All the
privy counsellors were to be of it ; but to these he desired
many others might be added, for whom he undertook that
they would execute them with zeal. Lord Lauderdale
saw that this would prove a high commission court : yet
he gave way to it, though much against his own mind.
Upon these things I took the liberty, though then too
young to meddle in things of that kind, to expostulate
very freely with him. I thought he was acting the earl

1 'The schismaticall and seditious some who have pretended to your

spirit amongst us is not yet conjured Grace to be our great patrons and

down, nor will it be suppressed patriots.' Lauderdale Papers (Camd.

unless the execution of the lawes Soc.), App. A. i. See also Sharp's

may be more rigorously prosecuted.' own letter of complaint of July 19,

Sharp to Sheldon, Oct. 9, 1663. On 1664, in the Sheldon MSS. Sharp

Feb. 27, i66|, Alexander Burnet did not go to London in person

wrote to Sheldon, complaining 'how until after Glencairn's death (infra

much the discontented persons are 373) in August, 1664. See Alexander

countenanced and encouraged by Burnet's letter of Aug. 20. Id.

VOL. I. B b

The History of the Reign

CH. VIII. of Traquair's part, giving way to all the follies of the
bishops on design to ruin them l. He upon that ran out
into a great deal of freedom with me : he told me many
passages of Sharp's past life : he was persuaded he would
ruin all : but he said he was resolved to give him line, for
he had not credit enough to stop him ; nor would he
oppose any thing he proposed, unless it were very extra-
vagant : he saw the earl of Glencairn and he would be in
perpetual war : and it was indifferent to him how matters
might go between them. . Things would run to a height,
and then the king would of himself put a stop to their
career : for the king said often, he was not priest-ridden,
he would not venture a war, nor travel again for any
party. This was all that I could obtain of the earl of
Lauderdale. I pressed Sharp himself to think of more
moderate methods 2 ; but he despised my applications, and
from that time he was ever very jealous of me.

Fairfoul, archbishop of Glasgow, died this year : and
one Burnet succeeded him 3, who was a near kinsman of
the lord a Teviot's a ; who, from being governor of Dunkirk
when it was sold, was sent to Tangier, but soon after in
Mays, an unhappy encounter, going out to view some grounds,
was intercepted, and cut to pieces by the Moors 4. Upon

a substituted for Rutherford's struck out.

April,
1663.

1664.

1 See supra 39.

2 The author was only twenty-one
when he gave the archbishop advice.
Cole.

3 Alexander Burnet was conse-
crated by Sharp, assisted by other
bishops, on Sept. 18. He had been
chaplain at Dunkirk in 1661, having
previously had alivingatTeynham in
Kent. The character given of him
here is not borne out by his actions
and expressed opinions, which, as
may be seen from his letters to
Sheldon already referred to, and
from his later history, were often
harsh to Nonconformity. But he

was perfectly honest, and a thorough
hater of Erastianism, and he fell
through these qualities. See infra
378, and 422-515. His nickname
with Tweeddale, Moray, and Lauder-
dale, is ' Longifacies ' or 'Longnez.'
There does not appear to be any
portrait of him in existence. See
the Life and Times of Archbishops
Burnet and Ross ; the True and Im-
partial Account of Archbishop Sharp ;
and Grubb's Letters from Burnet to
Bancroft, Cal St. P. Dom.

4 Rutherford, who was Alexander
Burnet's kinsman, was created Earl
of Teviot. The disaster, May 3, 1664,

of King Charles II. 371

aTeviot'sa recommendation, Burnet, who had lived many CH. vin.
years in England, and knew nothing of Scotland, was sent
thither, first to be bishop of Aberdeen, and from thence
he was raised to Glasgow. He was of himself a soft and
good natured man, tolerably learned, and of a blameless
life : but was a man of no genius, and though he was in-
clined to peaceable and moderate counsels, yet he was
much in the power of others, and took any impression that
was given him very easily. I was much in his favour at
first, but could not hold it long : for as I had been bred
up by my father to love liberty and moderation, so I spent
the greatest part of the year 1664 in Holland and France,
which contributed not a little to root and fix me in those
principles. I saw much peace and quiet in Holland, not-
withstanding the diversity of opinions among them ; which
was occasioned by the gentleness of the government, and
the toleration that made all people easy and happy. An
universal industry was spread through the whole country :
there was little aspiring to preferment in the state, because
little was to be got that way. It is true there seemed to
be among them too much coldness and indifference in the
matters of religion ; but I imputed that to their phlegmatic
tempers, that were not apt to take fire, rather than to the
liberty they enjoyed. They were then apprehending a
war with England, and were preparing for it. From
thence, where every thing was free, I went to France,
where nothing was free. The king was beginning to put
things in great method, both in his revenue, in his troops,
in his government at home, but above all in the increasing
of trade, and the building a great fleet. His own deport-
ment was solemn and grave, save only that he kept his

a substituted for Rutherford's struck out.

was the result of a gross military Hist, of the 2nd Queen's Royal Regi-
blunder. See Sir T. Bridge's report ment, i. 35-61, 62-67. For his
to Fanshawe ; Original Letters and character, see Pepys, June 4, 1664.
Negotiations, i. 99 (1724). Davis's

B b 2

372 The History of the Reign

CH. vin. mistresses very avowedly. He was diligent in his own
councils, and regular in the despatch of affairs : so that all
things about him looked like the preparing of matters for
all that we have seen acted since. The king of Spain was
considered as dying, and the infant his son was like to
die as soon as he : so that it was generally believed the
king of France was designing to set up a new empire in
the west. He had carried the quarrel at Rome about the
Corses so high with the house of Chigi, that the protestants
were beginning to flatter themselves with great hopes.
When I was in France, cardinal Chigi came as legate to
give the king full satisfaction in that matter1. Lord
Holies was then ambassador at Paris 2. I was so effectually
recommended to him, that he used me with great freedom,
which he continued to do to the end of his days. He
stood upon all the points of an ambassador with the stiff-
ness of former ages, which made him very unacceptable to
a high-spirited young prince, who began even then to be
flattered as if he had been somewhat more than a mortal.
This established me in my love of law and liberty, and

MS. 107. in my hatred of absolute | power. When I came back,
208 I stayed for some months at court, and observed the scene
as carefully as I could, and became acquainted with all
the men that were employed in Scottish affairs. I had
more than ordinary opportunities of being well informed.
This drew a jealousy on me from the bishops, which was
increased from the friendship into which Leighton received
me. I was thought no great friend to church power, nor
to persecution. So it was thought that lord Lauderdale
was preparing me, as one who was known to have been
always episcopal, to be set up against Sharp and his set
of men, who were much hated by one side, and not loved
or trusted by the other.

1 See this incident minutely de- pope under the title of Alex-
scribed in Martin's Hist, de France, ander II.
xiii. 287-290. Cardinal Chigi was 2 See supra 175, note,
the nephew of Fabio Chigi, then

of King Charles II. 373

In the mean while the earl of Glencairn died, which set CH. VIII.
Sharp at ease, but put him on new designs. He appre- Mayljpo
hended that the earl of Tweeddale might be advanced : 3°> l664-
for in the settlement of the duchess of Buccleugh's estate1,
who was married to the duke of Monmouth, the best
beloved of all the king's bastards, by which, in default of
issue by her, it was to go to Monmouth and the issue he
might have by any other wife, the earl of Tweeddale,
though his children were the next heirs, who were by this
robbed of their right, had yet given way to it in so frank
a manner, that the king was enough inclined both to
oblige and to trust him. But Sharp had great suspicions
of him, as cold in their concerns. So he writ to Sheldon 2,
that upon the disposal of the seals the very being of the
church did so absolutely depend, that he begged be would
press the king very earnestly in the matter, and that he
would move that he might be called up before that post
should be filled. The king bid Sheldon assure him he
should take a special care of that matter, but that there
was no occasion for his coming up3 : for the king by this
time had a very ill opinion of him. Sharp was so mortified
with this, that he resolved to put all to hazard, for he
believed all was at stake : and he ventured to come up.
The king received him coldly, and asked him if he had
not the archbishop of Canterbury's letter. He said he
had ; but he would choose rather to venture on his majesty's
displeasure, than to see the church ruined through his
caution or negligence. He knew the danger they were in
in Scotland, where they had but few and cold friends, and
many violent enemies. His majesty's protection, and the
execution of the law, were the only things they could

1 Anne Scott, niece of Rothes. a sueter for the Chancellor's place.'

2 Sharp, as usual, was unable to Sheldon MSS. But on the same date
avoid playing a double game. On Sharp himself wrote in unmistakable
June 19, 1664, Alexander Burnet language. L,auderdale Papers, ii.App.
wrote to Sheldon, saying that the A. iv, v, and vii.

reason for Sharp's not writing him- 3 Alexander Burnet to Sheldon,

self was 'to avoyd suspicion of being Aug. 2o; 1664. Id. App. A. viii.

374 The History of the Reign

CH. VIII. trust to : and so much depended on the good choice of
a chancellor, that he could not answer it to God and the
church if he did not bestir himself in that matter. He
knew many thought of himself for that post : but he was
209 so far from thata, that, if his majesty had any such inten-
tion, he would choose rather to be sent to a plantation:
he desired that he might be a churchman in heart, but
not in habit, that should be raised to that trust. These
were his very words, as the king reported them. From
thence he went to Sheldon, and pressed him to move the
king for himself, and furnished him with many reasons to
support the proposition ; a main one being, that the late
king had raised his predecessor Spotswood to that trust.
Sheldon upon that did move the king with more than
ordinary earnestness in it. The king suspected who had
set him on, and charged him to tell him the truth. The
other did it, though not without some uneasiness. Upon
that the king told him what he had said to himself; and
then it may be easily imagined in what a style they both
spoke of him. Yet Sheldon prayed the king that, what-
soever he might think of the man, he would consider
the archbishop and the church ; which the king assured
him he would do. Sheldon told Sharp that he saw the
motion for himself did not take ; so he must think of
somewhat else. He proposed that the seals should be
put in the earl of Rothes's hands, till the king should
pitch on a proper person. He also proposed that the
king would make him his commissioner, in order to the
preparing matters for a national synod, that they might
settle a book of common prayer, and a book of canons.
This he said must be carried on slowly, and with great
caution ; of which the late troubles did demonstrate the
necessity.

All this was easily agreed to : for the king loved the
lord Rothes, and the earl of Lauderdale would not oppose

a thought struck out.

of King Charles II. 375

his advancement 1 : though it was a very extravagant CH. vm.
thing to see one man possess so many of the chief places
of so poor a kingdom 2. The earl of Crawford would not
abjure the covenant ; so he had been made lord treasurer
in his place : he continued to be still what he was before,
lord president of the council : and upon the earl of Middle-
ton's disgrace he was made captain of a troop of guards :
and now he was both the king's commissioneV and upon
the matter lord chancellor 3. Sharp reckoned this was his
masterpiece. Lord Rothes, being thus advanced by his
means, was in all things governed by him. His instructions
were such as Sharp proposed, to prepare matters for
a national synod, and in the mean while to execute the
laws that related to the church with a steady firmness4.
So, when they parted from Whitehall, Sharp said to the
king, that he had now done all that could be desired of
him for the good of the church : so that, if all matters went
not right in Scotland, none must bear the blame but either
the earl of Lauderdale or of Rothes. And so they came 210
to Scotland, where a very furious scene of illegal violence
was opened. Sharp governed lord Rothes, who abandoned
himself to pleasure : and was more barefaced in some
indecent courtships, than that kingdom had ever seen
before : and when some censured this, all the answer that
was made was a severe piece of raillery, that the king's
commissioner ought to represent his person.

1 It was believed to be Lauder- until later (July, 1667), when he ac-
dale's appointment. Letters of Lady cepted the office 'with a sad hert.'
Margaret Kennedy (supra 196) Lauderdale Papers, ii. 16. It was
(Bannatyne Club), March n, 1665. the place for which he was least

2 The extreme poverty of Scotland fitted but in which he could do least
from 1660 to 1668, especially during harm. On Sept. 4, 1665, Burnet
the Dutch war, which closed the complains to Sheldon that 'the King
chief export trade, finds ample and hath not yet nominated a Chancellor.'
continuous expression in both official Id. App. xxvii. The post was kept
and private letters, contained in the vacant until Rothes's appointment.
Lauderdale MSS., from 23,122, f. 229 Cf. infra 433.

to 23,128, f. 290. * See Collier's Eccl. Hist. vol. ii.

3 He was not Lord Chancellor p. 892. Dr. Bliss.

The History of the Reign

CH. vill. | The government of Scotland as to civil matters was
Ms Io8 very easy. All were quiet and obedient ; but all those
counties that lie towards the west became very fierce and
intractable 1, and the whole work of the council was to deal
with them and to subdue them. It was not easy to prove
any thing against any of them, for they did stick firm to
one another. The people complained of the new set of
ministers that was sent among them, as a immoral, stupid,
and ignorant. Generally they forsook their churches, and
if any of them went to church, they were so little edified
with their sermons that the whole country was full of strange
reports of the weakness and indecency of their preaching
and their whole deportment 2. The people treated them
with great contempt, and with an aversion that broke out
often into violence and injustice. But their ministers, on
their parts, were not wanting in their complaints, aggravat-
ing matters, and possessing the bishops with many stories
of designs and plottings against the state. So, many were
brought before the council, and the new ecclesiastical com-
mission, for pretended riots 3, and for using their ministers
ill, but chiefly for not coming to church and for holding
conventicles. The proofs were often defective, and lay
rather in presumptions than clear evidence : and the punish-
ments proposed were often arbitrary, not warranted by law.
So the judges and other lawyers that were of those courts,

a lewd and struck out.

1 Cantyre, especially, is reported
by Rothes to be 'a nest of gnats.'
The proposal was now first made
to disarm the west country. Lauder-
dale Papers, i. 214.

2 See Lady Margaret Kennedy's
letter, referred to above (supra 375,
note i), of March n, 1665 : < For
God's sake endeavour to persuade
the King to part with Bishops, or
I much fear we will all be lost. They
are now hated, and hated by all as
much as by Presbyterians.'

3 See Alexander Burnet's letters

to Sheldon for Nov. 26, 1664 and
May 22, 1665. He naturally makes
the riots out to be anything but
' pretended.' Lauderdale Papers, ii.
App. A. xiv, xxii. The second dis-
turbance was celebrated as the riot
of the West Kirk. Rothes says that
'effter all the trayill and strick
searthe I can meack I ffaynd no
bodie ingadgied in it, but boayies
and ffanatieck shumackiers and ther
woyffs and printiesies.' Id, 221.
Wodrow, i. 422, scarcely notices
it.

of King Charles II. 377

were careful to keep proceedings according to forms of law: CH. vm.
upon which Sharp was often complaining that favour was
shewed to the enemies of the church under the pretence of
law. It was said that the people of the country were in
such a combination that it was not possible to find witnesses
to prove things fully: and he often said, Must the church
be ruined for punctilios of law ? When he could not carry
matters by a vote, as he had a mind, he usually looked to
the earl of Rothes ; who upon that was ever ready to say,
he would take it upon [him] to order the matter as Sharp
proposed, and would do it in the king's name 1. Great
numbers were cast in prison, where they were kept long,
and ill used : and sometimes they were fined, and the
younger sort whipped about the streets. The people grew
more sullen on all this ill usage. Many were undone by it,
and went over to the Scots in Ulster, where they were well 211
received, and had all manner of liberty as to their way of
religion.

Burnet was sent up to possess the king with the ap-
prehensions of a rebellion in the beginning of the Dutch
war2. He proposed that about twenty of the chief gentle-

1 ' My Lord Commissioner pre- countrie who due rejouys that the
tends great readiness to do what- duthe are not overthrown'; while
ever my Lord St. Andrews and I immediately after the Pentland Re-
advyse him/ Alexander Burnet to volt, he declared that ' befor the
Sheldon, Feb. 2, i66f . Sharp, writ- Lord I beliff they would joayn with
ing in April, to Sheldon, says, < We Turcks to feaght against the King
do what we can to rid the Church and his guffernment, and should anie
of the corrupt and perverse clergy. fforiners send . . . ten thousand
. . . Those ill disposed persons have earms, in a verie fyou days ther
too much matter to work upon by wold be pritie men to teack them
the poverty and discontent of many in ther hands.' Dec. 1666. Tweed-
of our nobility and gentry.' Sheldon dale, writing later to Lauderdale,
MSS. June 27, 1667, says, ' When the news

2 The Lauderdale and Sheldon of the Dutch coming into Chattam
Papers are full of references to the cam, the reflectione thereon was, no
probability that the people will take sojer shal live a year longer.' See
the occasion of the Dutch war for also Alexander Burnet to Sheldon,
a rising. Thus, on June 23, 1666, June 20 and Sept. 4, 1665, Feb. 5,
Rothes speaks of ' the strong evil i66f. Lauderdale Papers, ii. App.
affectedness of our pipill in this A. xxxi.

The History of the Reign

CH. vill. men of those counties might be secured : and he undertook
for the peace of the country, if they were clapped up1.
This was plainly illegal ; but the lord Lauderdale opposed
nothing. So it was done ; but with a very ill effect. For
those gentlemen, knowing how obnoxious they were, had
kept measures a little better : but they being put in prison,
both their friends and tenants laid all to the door of the
clergy, and hated them the more, and used them the worse
for it. The earls of Argyll, Tweeddale, and Kincardine,
who were considered as the lord Lauderdale's chief friends,
were cold in all those matters2. They studied to keep
proceedings in a legal channel, and were for moderate
censures ; upon which Sharp said they appeared to be the
friends and favourers of the enemies of the church. When
the people had generally forsaken their churches, the
guards were quartered through the country. Sir James
Turner 3, that commanded them, was naturally fierce, but
was mad when he was drunk ; and was often so. He was
ordered by the lord Rothes to act according to such

1 Burnet to Sheldon, April 18,
1665. Lauderdale Papers, ii. App.
A. xxxi.

2 Burnet to Sheldon, Sept. 4, 1665,
and June 8, 1666. Id.

3 Said to be Scott's original of
Major Dalgetty. He had served for
a long while in Germany, and, pre-
vious to the Restoration, had adhered
to the Covenant. He served under
Hamilton in the invasion of 1648.
His Pallas ' Armata] or Manual of
Military Order, was highly reputed.
In 1669 he translated Louis de May's
work on the War of Hungary. See
his Memoirs, published by the Banna-
tyne Club, 1829. His commission
instructed him, among other things,
'to exact the 20 shill. for being absent
from church, and to take such in-
formation as he thought fit when
ministers did not use it.' ' The first
part he streacht as far back as he

pleased, as if his commission had
reached to the year 60.' He had,
too, < letters of F. L. (" Longifacies,"
scil. Alexander Burnet), which ex-
cite to all severity.' Lauderdale
Papers, ii. 183. Moray, writing to
Lauderdale, Oct. 20, 1667 (id. 82),
relates that 'Sir James had 10 horse-
men that helped to levy his church
fines, &c., they were sent out to
quarter by pairs, and every 2 ex-
acted in every place quartering for
themselves and for 8 horse more at
I2d. a piece, threatening to send for
the other 8 if they refused. Thus
by a more solid kind of Arithmetic
than the Scholar reckoned 2 eyes to
be 3, he had a way to multiply 10
horse to 50; egregie quidem' See
m/ra4i7,44o. An attempt was made
to confiscate all the firearms in the
west. Sharp to Sheldon, April,
1665 ; Sheldon MSS.

of King Charles II. 379

directions as Burnet should send him ; so he went about CH. vin.
the country, and received such lists as the ministers brought
him of those who came not to church : and, without any
other proof or any legal conviction, he set such fines on
them as he thought they could pay, and sent soldiers to lie
on them till they were paid. I knew him well afterwards,
when he came to himself, being out of employment. He
was a learned man ; but had been always in armies, and
knew no other rule but to obey orders. He told me he
had no regard to any law, but acted as he was commanded,
in a military way. He confessed it went often against the
grain with him to serve such a debauched and worthless
company as the clergy generally were, and that sometimes
he did not act up to the rigour of his orders ; for which he
was oft chid both by lord Rothes and Sharp, but was
never checked for his illegal and violent proceedings.
And though the complaints of him were very high,
so that when he was afterwards seized on by the party,
they intended to make a sacrifice of him a ; yet, when
they looked into his orders, and found that his proceed-
ings, how fierce soever, fell short of these, they spared
him, as a man that had merited by being so gentle
among them.

The truth is, the whole face of the government looked 212
liker the proceedings of an inquisition than of legal courts :
and yet Sharp was never satisfied. So lord Rothes and
he went up to court in the first year of the Dutch war1.
When they waited first on the king, Sharp put him in mind
of what he had said at his last parting, that if their matters

a quickly struck out.

1 The dates here are somewhat month. Lauderdale Papers, i. 200,

confused by Burnet. Sharp went and ii. App. A. ix. He went again

to London in August, 1664, and with Rothes in November, 1666.

was there in November. It is Id. i. 243. There is much about

not probable that Rothes was with this in Alexander Burnet's letters

him then, as he was certainly to Sheldon in the Sheldon MSS.

in Edinburgh at the end of that War was declared in March, i66|.

380

The History of the Reign

CH. VIII. went not well, none must be blamed for it but either the
earl of Lauderdale or of Rothes : and now he came to tell
him that things were worse than ever : and he must do the
earl of Rothes the justice as to say he had done his part.
Lord Lauderdale was all on fire at this, but durst not give
himself vent before the king. So he only desired that
Sharp would come to particulars, and then he knew what

Ms. 109. he had to say. Sharp put that off | in a general charge,
and said, he knew the party so well, that if they were not
supported by secret encouragements, they would have been
weary of the opposition they gave the government. The
king had no mind to enter further into their complaints.
So lord Rothes and he withdrew, and were observed to
look very pleasantly upon one another as they went away 1.
Lord Lauderdale told the king he was now accused to his
face, but he would quickly let him see what a man Sharp
was. So he obtained a message from the king to him, of
which he himself was to be the bearer, requiring him to put
his complaints in writing, and to come to particulars. He
followed Sharp home, who received him with a gaiety as if
he had given him no provocation. But lord Lauderdale
was more solemn, and told him it was the king's pleasure
that he should put the accusation with which he had
charged him in writing. Sharp pretended he did not com-
prehend his meaning. He answered, the matter was plain :
he had accused him to the king, and he must either go
thorough with it and make it out, otherwise he would charge

1 Rothes very soon settled down
as Lauderdale's tool. A dynastic
alliance was made by the marriage,
in 1 666, of Tweeddale's son to Lauder-
dale's only daughter and heiress,
Mary, who was Rothes's cousin.
On Sept. 23, 1666, he is completely
devoted to Lauderdale's interest.
Lauderdale Papers, 1.241. The Dum-
fries matter, which follows (infra 381 ),
broke up his close connexion with
Sharp, who also, upon judicious

pressure, came over to the winning
side ; id. 241-269, especially the last
page, and ii. 86-93. Sharp was taken
into favour at the end of 1667, upon
betraying his former associates.
Charles wrote him a personal note,
which was received with an over-
flowing of servility. ' For myself,
his Majt's hand with the diamond
seal, was to me as a resurrection
from the dead,' &c., &c. See infra
440.

of King Charles II. 381

him with leasing-making : and spoke in a terrible tone to CH. viil.

him. Upon that, as he told me, Sharp fell a trembling and

weeping : he protested he meant no harm to him : he was

only sorry that his friends were upon all occasions pleading

for favour to the fanatics : (that was become the name of

reproach.) Lord Lauderdale said, that would not serve

turn : he was not answerable for his friends, except when

they acted by directions from him. Sharp offered to go

with him presently to the king, and to clear the whole

matter. Lord Lauderdale had no mind to break openly

with him ; so he accepted of this, and carried him to the

king, where he retracted all he had said in so gross a manner,

that the king said afterwards, lord Lauderdale was ill- 213

natured to press it so heavily, and to force Sharp on giving

himself the lie in such coarse terms. This went to Sharp's

heart : so he amadea a proposition to the earl of Dumfries,

who was a great friend of the lord Middleton's, to try if

a reconciliation could be made between him and the earl

of Rothes, and if he would be content to come into the

government under lord Rothes. Lord Dumfries went into

Kent, where the lord Middleton was then employed in

a military command on the account of the war x : and he

laid Sharp's proposition before him. The earl of Middleton

gave lord Dumfries power to treat in his name ; but said

he knew Sharp too well to regard any thing that came from

him. Before lord Dumfries came back, Sharp had tried

lord Rothes, but found he would not meddle in it : and

they both understood that the earl of Clarendon's interest

was declining, and that the king was like to change his

measures. So when lord Dumfries came back to give

Sharp an account of his negotiation, he seemed surprised,

and denied he had given him any such commission. This

enraged the earl of Dumfries so, that he published the

a substituted for entered into.

See supra 363, note. There is no trace of any 'military command.'

382

The History of the Reign

CH. VIII. thing in all companies : among others, he told it very
particularly to myself.

At that time Leightoun was prevailed on to go to court,
and to give the king a true account of the proceedings in
Scotland ; which, he said, were so violent, that he could
not concur in the planting the Christian religion itself in
such a manner, much less a form of government. He
therefore begged leave to quit his bishopric, and to retire,
for he thought he was in some sort accessory even to the
violences done by others, since he was one of them, and
all was pretended to be done to establish them and their
order. There were indeed no violences committed in his
diocese. He went round it constantly every year, preach-
ing and catechising from parish to parish. He continued
in his private and ascetic course of life, and gave all his
income, beyond the small expense on his own person, to
the poor. He studied to raise in his clergy a greater
sense of spiritual matters, and of the care of souls, and was
in all respects a burning and shining light, highly esteemed
by the greater part of his diocese : even the presbyterians
were much mollified, if not quite overcome, by his mild and
heavenly course of life 1. The king seemed touched with
the state that the country was in : he spoke very severely
of Sharp, and assured Leightoun he would quickly come
to other measures, and put a stop to those violent methods :
but he would by no means suffer him to quit his bishopric.
So the king gave orders that the ecclesiastical commission
should be discontinued ; and signified his pleasure that
another way of proceeding was necessary for his affairs.
214 He understood by his intelligence from Holland that the
exiles at Rotterdam were very busy, and that perhaps the
Dutch might furnish the malecontents of Scotland with
money and arms : so he thought it was necessary to raise
more troops. Two gallant officers that had served him in
the wars, and had gone with his letters to serve in Muscovy,

1 See supra 239. The Lauderdale Papers fully bear out this ac-
count.

of King Charles II. 383

where one of them, Dalziel 1, was raised to be a general, CH. VIII.
and the other, Drummond 2, was a lieutenant-general, and
governor of Smolensko, were now, not without great
difficulty, sent back by the Czar. So the king intended
they should command some forces that he was to raise.
Sharp was very apprehensive of this, but the king was
positive. A little before this, the Act of fining, that had
lien so long asleep that it was thought forgot, was revived ;
and all were required to bring in one moiety of their fines,
but the other moiety was forgiven those who took the de-
claration renouncing the covenant. The money was by
act of parliament to be given among those who had served
and suffered for the king ; so that the king had only the
trust of distributing it. There was no more Scottish
councils called at Whitehall after lord Middleton's fall, but
upon particular occasions the king ordered the privy
counsellors of that kingdom that were about the town to
be brought to him, before whom he laid out the necessity
of raising some more force for securing the quiet of Scot-
land : he only asked their advice, how they should be paid.
Sharp | very readily said, the money raised by the fining MS. no.
was not yet disposed of: so he proposed the applying it
to that use. None opposed this: so it was resolved on,
and by that means the cavaliers, who were come up with
their pretensions, were disappointed of their last hopes of
being recompensed for their sufferings. The blame of all

1 Invariably called Dalyel, or Dyel Strathallan, 1617-88. Cf. supra 107 ,
(as the family still is), in the cor- infra 429, and f. 375. He served in
respondence of the period. He was various capacities in Ireland ; joined
born about 1599 and died in 1685. Charles II in Holland after the
He served at Rochelle in 1628; was execution of Charles I; was made
taken prisoner at Worcester, but prisoner at Worcester, but escaped,
escaped in May, 1652, served under and joined Glencairn in 1653. In
Middleton, and in 1655 was recom- August, 1655, he went with Dalyel
mended by Charles II to the King to Russia, where he was made
of Poland. He then entered the Lieut.-General of the 'strangers/
Russian service, and returned in and Governor of Smolensko. On
1665. See the Dalyel Papers in the returning in 1665 with Dalyel he
H. M. C. Rep. ix. was made Major-General. He re-

2 William Drummond, firstViscount ceived his peerage in 1686.

3^4

The History of the Reign

CH. vin. was cast on Sharp, at which they were out of measure
enraged, and charged him with it. He denied it boldly ;
but the king published it so openly that he durst not
contradict him. Many to whom he had denied that he
knew any thing of the matter, and called that advice
a diabolical invention, affirmed it to the king ; and the lord
Lauderdale, to complete his disgrace with the king, got
many of his letters 1, which he had writ to the presbyterians
after the time in which the king knew that he was nego-
tiating for episcopacy, in which he had continued to protest
with what zeal he was soliciting their concerns, not without
dreadful imprecations on himself if he was prevaricating
with them, and laid these before the king: so that he
looked on him as one of the worst of men 2.
215 Many of the episcopal clergy in Scotland were much
offended at all these proceedings. They saw the prejudices
of the people were increased by them. They hated violent
courses, and thought they were contrary to the meek spirit
of the Gospel, and that they alienated the nation more and
more from the church. They set themselves much to read
church history, and to observe the state of the primitive
church, and the spirit of those times : and they could not
but observe so great a difference between the constitution
of the church under those bishops and our own, that they
seemed to agree in nothing but the name. I happened to
be settled near two of the most eminent of them, who were
often moved to accept of bishoprics, but always refused
them, both out of a true principle of humility and self-
denial, and also because they could not engage in the
methods by which things were carried on. One of these,
Mr. Nairn3, was the politest man I ever knew bred in
Scotland ; he had formed clear and lively schemes of

1 These letters, a remarkable re-
cord of self-exposure, may be seen
at the beginning of vol. i. of the
Lauderdale Papers.

2 Surely there was some secret
cause for this perpetual malice

against Sharp. S. See infra
388.

3 On Nairn and Charteris, see
Wodrow, ii. 177. Nairn appears to
have known Burnet as a boy.

of King Charles II. 385

things, and was the most eloquent of all our preachers. CH. VIII.
He considered the pastoral function as a dedication of the
whole man to God and his service. He read the moral
philosophers much, and had wrought himself into their
equal temper, as much as could consist with a great deal
of fire that was in his own : but he turned it all to melting
devotion. He had a true notion of superstition, as a narrow-
ness of soul, and a meanness of thought in religion. He
studied to raise all that conversed with him to great notions
of God, and to an universal charity. This made him pity
the presbyterians, as men of low notions and ill tempers.
He had indeed too much heat of imagination, which carried
him to be very positive in some things, in which he after-
wards changed his mind, that made him pass for an
inconstant man. In a word, he was the brightest man
I ever knew among all our Scottish divines. Another of
these was Mr. Charteris, a man of a composed and serene
gravity, but without affectation or sourness. He scarce
ever spoke in company, but was very open and free in
private. He made true judgments of things and of men's
tempers, and had a peculiar talent in managing such as he
thought deserved his pains. He had little heat either in
body or mind : for, as he had a most emaciated body, so
he spoke both slow, and in so low a voice that he could
not easily be heard. He had great tenderness, and was
a very perfect friend, and a most sublime Christian. He
lived in a constant contempt of the world, and a neglect of
his person. There was a gravity in his conversation that
raised an attention and begot a composedness in all about 210
him, without frightening them ; for he made religion appear
amiable in his whole deportment. He had read all the
lives and the epistles of great men very carefully, and
delighted much in the mystics. He had read the fathers
much, and gave me this notion of them, that in speculative
points, for which writers of controversy searched into their
works, they were but ordinaiy men, but their excellency
lay in that which was least sought for, their sense of
VOL. I. C c

386 The History of the Reign

CH. VIII. spiritual things, and of the pastoral care. In these he
thought their strength lay ; and he often lamented, not
without some indignation, that in the disputes about the
government of the church, much pains was taken to seek
out all those passages that shewed what their opinions
were, but that due care was not taken to set out the notions
that they had of the sacred functions, of the preparation of
mind and inward vocation with which men ought to come
to holy orders ; or of the strictness of life, the deadness to
the world, the heavenly temper, and of the constant
application to the doing of good, that became them. Of
these things he did not talk like an angry reformer, that
set up in that strain because he was neglected or provoked,
but like a man full of a deep but humble sense of them.
He was a great enemy to large confessions of faith, chiefly
when they were imposed in the lump as tests : for he was
positive in very few things. He had gone through the
chief parts of learning, but was then most conversant in
history, as the innocentest sort of study, that did not fill
the mind with subtilty, but helped to make a man wiser
and better. These were both single persons, and men of
great sobriety, and lived on a constant low diet, which
they valued more than severer fastings. Yet they both
became miserable by the stone. Nairn went to Paris,
where he was cut of a great one, of which he recovered,
but lived not many years after. Charteris lived to a great
age, and died in the end of the year 1700, having in his last
years suffered unspeakable torment from the stone, which
the operator would not venture to cut; but all that saw
what he suffered, and how he bore it, acknowledged that
in him they saw a most perfect pattern of patience and

MS. in. submission to the will of God. It was a great | happiness
for me, after I had broke into the world by such a ramble,
that I fell into such hands, with whom I entered into
a close and particular friendship. They both set me right,
and kept me right ; though I made at this time a sally
that may be mentioned, since it had some relation to public

of King Charles II. 387

affairs. I observed the deportment of our bishops was in CM. vill.
all points so different from what became their function that
I had a more than ordinary zeal kindled within me upon it.
They were not only furious against all that stood out 217
against them, but were very remiss in all the parts of their
function. Some did not live within their dioceses, and
those who did, seemed to take no care of them, they
shewed no zeal against vice : the most eminently wicked
men in the country were their particular confidents : they
took no pains to keep their clergy strictly to rules and to
their duty : on the contrary, there was a levity and a carnal
way of living about them, that very much scandalized me.
There was indeed one Scougal, bishop of Aberdeen, that
was a man of a rare temper, great piety and prudence : but
I thought he was too much under Sharp's conduct, and was
at least too easy to him 1.

Upon all this I took a resolution of drawing up a
memorial of the grievances we lay under by the ill conduct
of our bishops 2. I resolved that no other person besides
myself should have a share in any trouble it might bring
on me : so I communicated it to none. This made it not
to be in all the parts of it so well digested as it otherwise
might have been : and I was then but three and twenty. 1666.
I laid my foundation in the constitution of the primitive
church ; and shewed how they had departed from it, by

1 See a high character of this upbraid the bishops for their pride
bishop, and of his son, who was and vanity in hanging their rooms,
the author of the book entitled, The riding in coaches, and having foot-
Life of God in the Soul of Man, in men and other servants in livery ;
Bishop Burnet's Preface to his Life for marrying their daughters to
of William Bedell, Bishop of Kilmore gentlemen rather than to clergy-
(^1685). R. men, &c. The bishops were not un-

2 Cockburn, Specimen of Remarks, naturally annoyed, especially when
35, gives an account of the memorial, they found that Burnet had given
which he had seen and possessed, copies to Presbyterian friends and
but had lost. It was ' on three others, and had allowed them to
sheets of fine post paper, written be handed about before they them-
folio-wise.' It began with the selves had seen them. See also
words of Elihu, 'I am young. Vindication of Dr. Burnet, &c. (1724).
and ye are old,' and went on to

C C 2

388 The History of the Reign

CH. vin. their neglecting their dioceses, meddling so much in secular
affairs, raising their families out of the revenues of the
church, and above all by their violent prosecuting of those
who differed from them. Of this I writ out some copies,
and signed them, and sent them to all the bishops of my
acquaintance. Sharp was much alarmed at it, and fancied
I was set on to it by some of the lord Lauderdale's friends.
I was called before the bishops, and treated with great
severity. Sharp called it a libel. I said I had set my
name to it, so it could not be called a libel. He charged
me with the presumption of offering to teach my superiors.
I said, such things has been not only done, but justified in
all ages. He charged me for reflecting on the king's putting
them on his councils. I said, I found no fault with the
king for calling them to his councils, but with them for
going out of that which was their proper province, and
for giving ill counsel. Then he charged me for reflecting
on some severities, which, he said, was a reproaching public
courts, and a censuring the laws. I said, laws might be
made in terrorem, not always fit to be executed : but I only
complained of clergymen's pressing the rigorous execution
of them, and going often beyond what the law dictated.
He broke out into a great vehemence, and proposed to the
bishops that I should be summarily deprived and excom-
municated : but none of them would agree to that. By this
management of his the thing grew public. What I had
ventured on was variously censured : but the greater part
218 approved of it. Lord Lauderdale and all his friends were
delighted with it : and he gave the king an account of it,
who was not ill pleased at it. Great pains was taken to
make me ask pardon, but to no purpose : so Sharp let the
thing fall l. But, that it might appear that I had not done

1 Scougal of Aberdeen opposed different version of the affair. He

the sentence, and quarrelled with says that Burnet only saved himself

Sharp about it. See Scougal's by ' a great submission,' on his

opinion of Burnet in Cockburn's knees, id. 33-43. But see Vindica-

Specimen of 'Remarks, 62. Cockburn, tion, &c., 22.
who knew Burnet well, gives a very

of King Charles II.

389

it upon any factious design, I entered into a very close state CH. vill.
of retirement, and gave my self wholly to my studies and
the duties of my function.

CHAPTER IX.

FIRST DUTCH WAR. THE PLAGUE, COURT SCANDALS.
THE FIRE.

THUS I have run over the state of Scotland in the years
[i6]63, [i6]64, [i6]65, and till near the end of [i6]66.
I now return to the affairs of England ; in which I must
write more defectively, being then so far from the scene.
In winter [i6]64 the king declared his resolution of entering
into a war with the Dutch. The grounds were so slight1,
that it was visible there was somewhat more at bottom
than was openly owned. A great comet 2, which appeared

1 See the causes — chiefly con-
cerned with Downing — as they
appeared to De Witt, and those
given by other Dutchmen, in Tem-
ple's Works, i. 307-310 (1770).
Charles had his own private quarrel.
Mignet, Negotiations, &c., 412. Cf.
Pontalis, Jean de Witt, i. 323 ; Ranke,
iii. 417-422. Pepys mentions the
satirical pictures and medals in
Holland, Nov. 28, 1663. But the
overriding causes were commercial
rivalry, and the irritation among the
Dutch caused by the conditions of
peace in 1654, aggravated by the re-
enactment of the Navigation Act in
1661. Since 1661, although formal
amity was preserved, the nations
had been in fierce and incessant
strife in every quarter of the globe.
See 'Report of Committee of Trade
to the House of Commons/ and
' Resolutions of both Houses,' Parl.
Hist. 292, April 22 ; and the ' King's
Narrative,' Nov. 24, 1664, id. 297.
On the Dutch side see Ponlalis,Jean
de Witt, i. 325. The feeling in Eng-

land is well expressed by two lines
in ' King Charles his glory and
the Rebell's shame ' (British Museum
Catalogue of Prints and Drawings,
Div. i. Satires, No. 979, p. 549) :

' Make warrs with Dutchmen, Peace
with Spain,

Then we shall have money and

trade again.'

There was a corresponding proverb
in Spain, ' Con todos guerra et
paz con Inglaterra' (' War with all
and peace with England'), Mignet,
Negotiations, <tc., i. 430. Compare
infra 545, 546, notes, upon the war
of 1672.

2 This comet has no distinctive
name, and has not been seen again.
Halley computed its orbit, from
observations by Helvelius, and
Lubienietski wrote about it. See
Hind's work on Comets, 106, 144 ;
Pepys, Dec. 17, 21, 1664; Portland
MSS., H. M. C. Rep. xiv. App. ii. 289.
' We have here no news at all, tho:
a comet seen every night seems to
tell us we shall have enough here-

390

The History of the Reign

CHAP. IX. that winter, raised the apprehensions of those who did not
enter into just speculations concerning those matters. The
house of commons was so far from examining nicely into
the grounds of the war, that without any difficulty they
gave the king two millions and a half for carrying it on J.
A great fleet was set out, which the duke commanded in
person 2 ; as Opdam had the command of the Dutch fleet.
But as soon as the war broke out, a most terrible plague
broke out also in the city of London, that scattered all the
inhabitants that were able to remove themselves elsewhere3.
It broke the trade of the nation, and swept away about an
hundred thousand souls ; the greatest havock that any
plague had ever made in England. This did dishearten
all people : and coming in the very time in which so unjust
a war was begun, it had a dreadful appearance. All the
king's enemies and the enemies of monarchy said, here was

after.' Holies to Fanshawe, Orig.
Lett, and Negot. i. 401. In May,
1668, ' the same metor ' appeared
again, ' God grant it portend some
good to this distracted nation, but
many apprehend otherwise.' Sir
R. Verney, Verney MSS., May 21.
In 1677, again, 'The Queene is ill,
and much affected with the blazing
star.' Letters of Lady Russell, April,
1677. Another comet, in 1680, upon
which see Hind, 106-109, caused
great consternation. Portland MSS.
iii. 368; Kenyan MSS., H. M. C.
Rep. xiv. App. iv. 122, 125.

1 For the manner in which this
vote was engineered through the
House, see Parl. Hist. iv. 304 ;
Clarendon, Cont. 228.

2 DeCominges, French Ambassador,
speaks of the Duke of York's energy
in fitting out the fleet ; and especi-
ally notes that it was officered by
' the old generals and captains of
Cromwell, who are very loyal and
full of confidence on account of their
last successes against the Dutch.'

Jusserand, A French Ambassador,

&C-, 135, !36-

8 Lord Clarendon, in an unpub-
lished letter to Archbishop Sheldon,
written on Sept. 28, in this year,
congratulates him on the decrease
of no less than 1,827 deaths in the
bill of mortality from the number
reported in the preceding week ;
and hopes that they shall be re-
lieved with the same comfort every
week. The number here mentioned
was probably the true one, as Pepys,
in his Diary, Sept. 27, 1665, states
the decrease to have been above
1, 800. But in Vincent's God's terrible
Voice in the City, as cited at least by
Oldmixon, in his History of the
Stuarts, 522, the number given is
1,627. The plague was at the highest
in the preceding week, during which
there died of it 7,165 persons. This
number is mentioned also by Pepys,
Sept. 20, 1665. R. In the autumn
and winter of 1664 the Dutch had
themselves suffered severely from
the plague.

of King Charles II. 391

a manifest character of God's heavy displeasure ; as indeed CHAP. IX.
the ill life the king led, and the viciousness of the whole
court, gave but a melancholy prospect. Yet God's ways
are not as our ways. What all had seen in the year [i6]6o
ought to have silenced those who at this time pretended to
comment on providence. But there will be always much
discourse of things that are very visible, as well as very
extraordinary. When the two fleets met, it is well known June 3,
what accidents disordered the Dutch, and what advantage l665'
the English had1. If that first success had | been followed, MS. na.
as was proposed, it might have been fatal to the Dutch,
who, finding they had suffered so much, steered off. The
duke ordered all the sail to be set on to overtake them.
There was a council of war called to concert the method of 219
action, when they should come up with them. In that
council Penn 2, who commanded under the duke, happened
to say. that they must prepare for hotter work in the next
engagement : he knew well the courage of the Dutch was
never so high as when they were desperate. The earl of
Montague, who was then a volunteer, and one of the
duke's court, said to me, it was very visible that made an
impression : and all the duke's domestics said, he had got
honour enough : whya should he venture a second time?
The duchess had also given a strict charge to all the duke's
servants, to do all they could for hindering him to engage
too far. When matters were settled, they all went to sleep :
and the duke ordered a call to be given him when they
should get up to the Dutch fleet. It is not known what
passed between the duke and Brouncker 3, who was of his

* what MS.

1 This battle was fought off Lowes- struck by Charles II.

toft, June 3, 1665. The Dutch fleet, 2 Admiral Penn, father of William

slightly inferior in number of ships, Penn the Quaker. See Granville

had a larger number of guns and Perm's Memoirs of Sir W. Penn.

men. De Guiche \Memoires, ii. 81, His letters, and extracts from his

107) accounts for the victory of the journal, may be found in the Portland

English by their superior discipline. MSS., H. M. C. Rep. xiii. App. ii.

See Pontalis, i. 343-346. 'EtPontus 70, 71, &c.

Serviet' is the motto on the medal 3 Brouncker was brother to Wil-

392

The History of the Reign

CHAP. IX. bedchamber, and was then in waiting : but he came to Penn,
as from him, and said, the duke ordered the sail to be
slackened. Penn was struck with the order ; but did not
go to argue the matter with the duke himself, as he ought
to have done, but obeyed it. When the duke had slept, he,
upon his waking, went out on the quarter-deck, and seemed
amazed to see the sails slackened, and that thereby all
hope of overtaking the Dutch was lost. He questioned
Penn upon it. Penn put it on Brouncker, who said nothing.
The duke denied he had given any such order ; but he
neither punished Brouncker for carrying it, nor Penn for
obeying it l. He indeed put Brouncker out of his service :
and it was said that 'he durst do no more, because he was
so much both in the king's favour and in the mistress's.
Penn was more in his favour after that than ever, which he
continued to his son after him, though a quaker : and it
was thought that all that favour was to oblige him to keep
the secret. Lord Montague did believe that the duke was
struck, seeing the earl of Falmouth 2, the favourite, and two
other persons of quality, killed very near him ; and that he

Ham second Lord Brouncker, Presi-
dent of the Royal Society (infra 344,
note), whom he succeeded in the title
in 1684. There seems to be no extant
word in his favour. Pepys (Oct. 20,
1667) terms him 'a pestilent rogue,
an atheist, that would have sold his
King and country for sixpence
almost, so corrupt and wicked a
rogue he is by all men's reports.'
Evelyn (March 24, 1688) says he
' was ever noted a hard, covetous,
vicious man, but, for his worldly
craft and skill in gaming, few ex-
ceeded him.' Clarendon's account
is no better ; and De Grammont gives
some characteristic details, adding,
as his one qualifying word, that he
was a fine chess-player. ' Bronkard,
Love's Squire,' is Marvell's note of
him. Last Instructions, 17$. He was
one of the Navy Commissioners, and

as such was accused of swindling the
sailors of their pay, and of appro-
priating the prize money. Cal. St.
P. Dom. 1666-7, 340.

1 Commons' Journals, April 17,
1668. See Clarke's Life of James II,
i. 415-433, where James accuses
Brouncker of lying ; and Macpher-
son's Original Papers, which differ
from Burnet in some details. It was
ordered that both Brouncker and Penn
should be impeached, the former (who
was expelled the House, April 17,
1668, for non-attendance) on account
of this affair, the latter for fraud and
embezzlement. Parl. Hist. iv. 408,
409, Feb. 10, i66£. The matter was
not further pursued, as the House
was adjourned on May 8, 1668, and
did not meet again for business
until Oct. 19, 1669.

2 Charles Berkeley, created Earl

of King Charles II. 393

had no mind to engage again, and that Penn was privately CHAP. IX.
with him. If Brouncker was so much in fault as he seemed
to be, it was thought the duke, in the passion that this
must have raised in him, would have proceeded to greater
extremities, and not have acted with so much phlegm.
This proved the breaking the designs of the king's whole
reign : for the Dutch themselves believed that, if our fleet •
had followed them with full sail, we must have come up
with them next tide, and have either sunk or taken their
whole fleet. De Witt was struck with this misfortune : and,
imputing some part of it to errors in conduct, he resolved
to go on board himself, as soon as their fleet was ready to
go to sea again.

Upon this occasion I will say a little of him, and of the 220
affairs of Holland. His father was the deputy of the town
of Dort in the States, when the late prince of Orange x was
so much offended with their proceedings in disbanding
a great part of their army : and he was one of those whom July 30,
he ordered upon that to be carried to the castle of Loeve-
stein. Soon after that, his design on Amsterdam mis-
carrying, he saw a necessity of making up the best he
could with the States. But, before he had quite healed
that wound, he died of the small-pox. Upon his death all
his party fell in disgrace, and the Loevesteiners carried all
before them. So De Witt got his son John, then but
twenty-five years of age, made pensioner of Dort 2. And
within a year after, the pensioner of Holland dying, he was 1653.
made pensioner of Holland. His breeding was to the civil
law, which he understood very well. He was a great
mathematician : and as his Elementa Curvarum shew what

of Falmouth. See his character, 2 He was born Dec. 24, 1625,
supra 181. It is to his credit that and was made Pensioner of Dort,
he died penniless, through generosity Dec. 21, 1650. Adrien Pauw d' Hem-
to old cavaliers rather than through stede, Grand Pensionary of Holland,
extravagance. Clarke's Life of James did not die until Feb. 21, 1653.
•H> i- 397- John de Witt succeeded him July 23,

1 sdl. William II, who died Nov. 1653.
1650. Pontalis,y«i« de Witt, i. 47, 58.

394 The History of the Reign

CHAP. IX. a man he was that way, so perhaps no man ever applied
algebra to all matters of trade so nicely as he did. He
made himself so entirely the master of the state of Holland,
that he understood exactly all the concerns of their revenue,
and what sums, and in what manner, could be raised upon
any emergent of state : for this he had a pocketbook full of
tables, and was ever ready to shew how they could be fur-
nished with money. He was a frank, sincere man, without
fraud, or any other artifice but silence : to which he had so
accustomed the world, that it was not easy to know whether
he was silent on design or custom. He had a great clear-
ness of apprehension : and when any thing was proposed to
him, how new soever, he heard all patiently, and then asked
such questions as occurred to him : and by the time he had
done all this, he was as much master of the proposition as
the person was that had made it. He knew nothing of
modern history, nor of the state of courts : and was
eminently defective in all points of form. But he laid down
this for a maxim, that all princes and states followed their
own interests : so by observing what their true interests
were, he thought he could without great intelligence calcu-
late what they were about. He did not enough consider
how far passions, amours, humours, and opinions wrought
on the world, chiefly on princes. He had the notions of
a commonwealth from the Greeks and Romans : and from
them he came to fancy, that an army commanded by
officers of their own country was both more in their own
power, and would serve them with the more zeal, since they
themselves had such an interest in the success. And so he
was against their hiring foreigners, unless it was to be
221 common soldiers, to save their own people. But he did
not enough consider the phlegm and covetousness of his
countrymen ; of which he felt the ill effects afterwards.
This was his greatest error, and it turned fatally upon him.
But for the administration of justice at home, and for the
management of their trade, and their forces by sea, he was
the ablest minister they ever had. He had a hereditary

of King Charles II. 395

hatred to the house of Orange. He thought it was im- CHAP. IX.
possible to maintain their liberty if they were still stat-
holders. Therefore he did all that was possible to put an
invincible bar in their way, by the perpetual edict. But at Jan. 1668.
the same time he took great | care of preserving the young MS. 113.
prince's fortune ; and looked well to his education, and
gave him, as the prince himself told me, very just notions
of every thing relating to their state. For he said, he did
not know, but that at some time or other he would be set
over them : therefore he intended to render him fit to
govern well \ The town of Amsterdam became at that
time very ungovernable. It was thought that the West
India company had been given up chiefly by their means ;
for it was in value so equal to the East India company,
that the actions of both were often exchanged for one
another. When the bishop of Munster2 began his preten-
sions on that city and on a great part of Westphalia, they
offered themselves up to the States, if they would preserve
them. But the town of Amsterdam would not consent
to it, nor submit to the charge. Yet they never seemed
to set up for a superiority over the rest, nor to break
the credit of the courts at the Hague: only they were
backward in every thing that was proposed and increased
the charge, and were become so weary of De Witt, that he
felt how much this miscarriage at sea had shaken his
credit ; since misfortunes are always imputed to the errors
of those that govern. So he resolved to go on board.
De Ruyter often said, that he was amazed to see how
soon he came to a perfect understanding of all sea affairs.
The winds were so long backward, that it was not easy

1 Old Mr. Inglish, who was surgeon the last Earl of Aylesford and me,

to Chelsea College, told me he had that he was at the opening of

it from very good hands in Holland, King William ; and observed some-

that De Witt corrupted the prince's thing in relation to his private parts,

nurse to give him a pinch in his that he had never seen before in

secret parts, that should hinder his any man that was not an eunuch. D.

ever having any children : and I Compare Maidment's Scottish Pas-

remember Mr. Charles Barnard, who quils, 260, 280 ; but see supra 5, note,

was surgeon to Queen Anne, told 2 See infra 450, note.

396 The History of the Reign

CHAP. IX. to get their great ships through the Zuyder Sea : so he
went out in boats himself, and plummed it all so carefully,
that he found many more ways of getting out by different
winds, than was thought formerly practicable. He got
out in time to be master of the sea before the end of the
season : and so recovered the affront of the former loss,
by keeping at sea after the English fleet was forced to
put in. The earl of Sandwich was sent to the north with
a great part of the fleet, to He for the East India ships ;
but he was thought too remiss. They got, before he was
222 aware of it, into Bergen in Norway. If he had followed
them quick, he could have forced the port, and taken
them all. But he observed forms, and sent to the viceroy
of Norway demanding entrance. That was denied him.
But while these messages went backward and forward, the
Dutch had so fortified the entrance into the port, that,
though it was attempted with great courage, yet Tiddiman,
and those who composed that squadron, were beat off with
great loss, and forced to let go a very rich fleet.

a Here I will add a particular relation of a transaction
relating to that affair, taken from the account given of it
in a MS. that I have in my hands by sir Gilbert Talbot *,
then the king's envoy at the court of Denmark. That
king did, in June 1665, open himself very freely to Talbot,
complaining of the States, who, as he said, had drawn the
Swedish war on him, on design that he might be forced
to depend on them for supplies of money and shipping,
and so to get the customs of Norway and the Sound into
their hands for their security. Talbot upon that told him,
that the Dutch Smyrna fleet was now in Bergen, besides
many rich West India ships ; and that they stayed there
in expectation of a double East India fleet, and of De
Ruyter, who was returning with the spoils of the coast
of Guinea. So he said the king of Denmark might seize

a [Here there is this note: 'Here the affixed paper comes in'; and the
following two sections have been inserted by Burnet on a separate leaf,
subsequently.]

1 See next page, note 2.

of King Charles IL 397

those ships before the convoy came which they expected. CHAP. IX.

The king of Denmark said, he had not strength to execute

that. Talbot said, the king his master would send a force

to effect it : but it was reasonable he should have the half

of the spoil. To which the king of Denmark readily

agreed, and ordered him to propose it to his master. So

he immediately transmitted it to the king, who approved

of it, and promised to send a fleet to put it in execution.

The ministers of Denmark were appointed to concert the

matter with Talbot ; but nothing was put in writing, for

the king of Denmark was ashamed to treat of such an affair

otherwise than by word of mouth. Before the end of July,

news came that De Ruyter, with the East India fleet, was on

the coast of Norway. Soon after he came into Bergen. The

riches then in that port were reckoned at many millions *.

The earl of Sandwich was then in those seas 2. So
Talbot sent a vessel express to him with the news, but
that vessel fell into the Dutch fleet, and was sent to
Holland. The king of Denmark wrote to the viceroy of

1 The details here given are not 350) ; he then sailed north, Aug. n,
quite accurate. On July 2, 1665, in time to bring off the Dutch East
James sent orders to Penn ' to wax India fleet escaping from Bergen,
diligent in execution hereof in regard 2 See Arlington's account in his
of the intelligence which his Majesty Letters, ii. 84, 85, 87, from the last
has received of De Ruyter being of which (Aug. 22, 1665), it is clear
upon his way from Newfoundland,' that Sandwich was not actually
and mentions the Dutch East India present at the fight. See also Sand-
fleet as being also ' suddanely ex- wich's own account to Pepys, Sept.
pected.' He was to follow the latter 18, 1665 ; Sir Gilbert Talbot's True
to Norway if the}7 went there, ' and Narrative, Harl. MSS. 6,859 '•> and, es-
though they should goe into any pecially, Talbot's letters to Arlington
harbours belonging to the King of in Lister's Life of Clarendon, iii. 389-
Danemarke in those parts, if you 391,393-395,398,405. He was, how-
finde you are able to take or destroy ever, held responsible, and for this
them or any considerable part qf and his conduct in the matter of the
them within those harbours you are prizes was entirely out of favour
not to neglect the opportunity of at Court, especially with Monk, in
doing it.' Portland MSS., H. M. C. the winter of 1665. Id. Dec. 31.
Rep. xiii. App. ii. 103. The attack was 1665 ; July 6, 1666. See Hawkins's
therefore premeditated. Ruyter, Medallic Illustrations of the History of
from Newfoundland, reached the Great Britain and Ireland (&&. Franks
Ems on Aug. 6, 1665 (Pontalis, i. and Grueber, 1885), i. 508.

398

The History of the Reign

223

CHAP. IX. Norway and to the governor of Bergen, ordering them
to use all fair means to keep the Dutch still in their
harbour, promising to send particular instructions in a few
days to them how to proceed. Talbot sent letters with
these, to be delivered secretly to the commanders of the
English frigates, to let them know that they might boldly
assault the Dutch in port ; for the Danes would make no
resistance, pretending a fear that the English might destroy
their town : but that an account was to be kept of the
prize, that the king of Denmark might have a just half of
it. They were not to be surprised, if the Danes seemed at
first to talk high : that was to be done for shew : but they
would grow calmer when they should engage. The earl
of Sandwich sent his secretary to Talbot, to know the
particulars of the agreement with the king of Denmark.
But the vessel that brought him was ordered, upon landing
the secretary, to come back to the fleet, so that it was
impossible to send by that vessel what was desired, and
no other ship could be got to carry back the secretary.
And thus the earl of Sandwich went to attack the Dutch
fleet without staying for an answer from Talbot, or knowing
what orders the governor of Bergen had yet received :
for though the orders were sent, yet it was so great a way,
ten or twelve days' journey, that they could not reach the
place but after the English fleet had made the attack.
The viceroy of Norway, who resided at Christiana, had
his orders sooner, and sent out two galleys to commu-
nicate the agreement to the earl of Sandwich ; but missed
him, for he was then before Bergen. The governor of
Bergen, not having yet the orders that the former express
had promised him. sent a gentleman to the English fleet,
desiring they would make no attack for two or three days ;
for by that time he expected his orders. Clifford was sent
to the governor, who insisted that till he had orders he must
defend the port, but that he expected them in a very little
time. Upon Clifford's going back to the fleet, a council
of war was called, in which the officers, animated with the

of King Charles 17. 399

hope of a rich booty, resolved without further delay to CHAP. IX.
attack the port, either doubting the sincerity of the Danish
court, or unwilling1 to give them so large a share of that
on which they reckoned as already their prize. Upon
this Tiddiman began the attack, which ended fatally. Aug. 3,
Divers frigates were disabled, and many officers and seamen
were killed. The squadron was thus ruined, and Tiddiman
was ready to sink : so he was forced to slip his cables, and
retire to the fleet, which lay without . the rocks. This
action was on the third of August : and on the fourth the
governor received his orders. So he sent for Clifford, and
shewed him his orders. But, as the English fleet had by 224
their precipitation forced him to do what he had done, so
he could not, upon what had happened the day before,
execute these orders till he sent an account of what had
passed to the court of Denmark, and had the king's second
orders upon it. And, if the whole English fleet would not
stay in those seas so long, he desired they would leave
six frigates before the harbour, and he would engage the
Dutch should not in the mean while go out to sea. But
the English were sullen upon their disappointment, and
sailed away. The king of Denmark was unspeakably
troubled at the loss of the greatest treasure he was ever
like to have in his hands. Thus a design well laid, that
would have been as fatal to the Dutch as ignominious to
the king of Denmark, was, by the impatient ravenousness
of the English, lost without a possibility of recovering it.
And indeed there was not one good step made after this
in the whole progress of the war. The blame of the mis-
carriage was cast on the lord Sandwich, who was sent
ambassador into Spain, that his disgrace might be a little
softened by that employment 1. The duke's conduct was
much blamed, and it was said he was most in fault, but
that the earl of Sandwich was made the sacrifice 2.

1 Pepys, Dec. 6, 1665. Fanshawe London, above one hundred and fifty
was superseded ; cf. Clarendon, Cont. leagues from Bergen in Norway.'
755-769> and Lister, ii. 359. Higgons's Remarks, 145. R.

2 ' The duke was at this time at

400

The History of the Reign

1665.

CHAP. IX. England was at this time in a dismal state1. The
plague continued for the most part of the summer in and
about London, and began to spread over the country.
The earl of Clarendon moved the king to go to Salisbury,
but the plague broke out there : so the court removed to

Oct. 9-31, Oxford, where another session of parliament was held, and
though the conduct at sea was severely reflected on, yet
all that was necessary for carrying on the war another
year was given 2. The house of commons kept up still
the ill humour they were in against the nonconformists a.
A great many of the ministers of London were driven
away by the plague, though some few stayed. Many
churches being shut up 3, when the inhabitants were in
a more than ordinary disposition to profit by good sermons,
some of the non-conformists went into the empty pulpits,
and preached, as it was given out, with very good success :
and in many other places they began to preach openly,

a very high struck out.

1 See Cal. St. P. Dom. 1665-6, 5,
68, 102, 212, 247, 277 ; and the Bills
of Mortality, id. 1666, 392-394, from
which it appears that during 1665,
while the births were 9,967, the
deaths were 97,306, those from the
Plague alone being 68,596. For a
vivid and previously unpublished
description of the streets during the
Plague, see the Portland MSS. iii,
H. M. C. Rep. xiv. App. ii. 292. The
laxity and recklessness of the Court
at Oxford at this time also receive
full illustration from the same source.

2 A supply of a million and a quarter
was given, although the former grant
of two millionsand a half (supra 390),
which was to have lasted three years,
had been expended in one. In
September, 1666, after the Fire, an-
other sum of £1,800,000 was voted.
The vote was taken before the House
had assembled in full numbers, and
the country gentry, who were now

murmuring, secured, when they came
up, a proviso insisting that the
money raised should be applied only
to the ends for which it was asked,
and appointing a parliamentary com-
mission to inspect the expenditure and
examine the officials upon oath. The
system of ' appropriation of supplies,'
and the common use of the terms
'court party' and 'country party,'
appear to date from this. The proviso
was Downing's device. Clarendon,
Cont. 787, &c.

3 Ellis, Original Letters, and Series,
iv. 26. In a letter to Sancroft it is
said that the Bishop of London
wrote to the clergy who had
deserted their posts, informing them
that they would forfeit their livings
if they did not return. See the
letters of Stephen Birig (a 'Petti
canon of S*. Paul's ') to Sancroft,
Harl. Misc. 3785^. 19-47.

of King Charles II. 401

not without reflecting on the sins of the court, and on the CHAP. IX.
ill usage that they themselves had met with. This was
represented very odiously at Oxford. So a severe bill
was brought in, requiring all the silenced ministers to take
an oath, declaring it was not lawful on any pretence
whatsoever to take arms against the king, or any commis-
sioned by him ; and that they would not at any time
endeavour an alteration in the government, in church or
state *. Such as refused this were not to come within five N
miles of any city, or parliament borough, or of the church
where they had served. This was much opposed in both /
houses, but more faintly in the house of commons. The
earl of Southampton spoke vehemently against it in the
house of lords ; he said he could take no such oath him- 225
self: for, how firm soever he had always been to the
church, yet, as things were managed, he did not know but
he himself might see cause to endeavour an alteration.
Dr. Earle, the bishop of Salisbury2, died at that time,
but before his death he declared himself much against the
act. He was the man of all the clergy for whom the king
had the greatest esteem : he had been his subtutor, and
had followed him in all his exile, with so clear a character
that the king could never see or hear of any one thing

1 See the same oath, now applied one of the most respected of Presby-

to Nonconformists, in the Act of terian ministers, was committed to

Uniformity, supra 323. The penalty the Gate House under this Act in

for refusing it was a fine of £40 and March, 1670. Portland MSS. iii.

six months imprisonment. An at- 313.

tempt was made in the Lords to 2 Author of Microcosmography.
impose it upon the whole nation, He was appointed one of the West-
and the motion was only lost by six minster assembly of divines in 1643,
votes, 57-51, and even then by an but refused to serve ; he was after-
accident. Christie's Shaftesbury, i. wards successively Dean of West-
293. See Locke, Letter from a minster, 1660, Bishop of Worcester,
Person of Quality, Works, x. 203 ; 1662, and of Salisbury, 1663. The
Parl. Hist. iv. 328 ; Commons Jour- consensus of opinion upon his virtues
nals, Oct. 27, 1665 ; Ralph, i. 125. is remarkable. See Evelyn's enthu-
With the passing of the Five Mile siastic character of him, Nov. 30,
Act, which received the royal assent 1662. He died November, 1665. He
Oct. 31, 1665, the machinery of per- was succeeded in September, 1667,
secution was complete. Dr. Manton, by Seth Ward, Bishop of Exeter.
VOL. I. D d

402

The History of the Reign

CHAP. IX. amiss in him. So he, who had a secret pleasure in finding
out any thing that lessened a man esteemed eminent for
piety, had a value for him beyond all the men of his order.
Sheldon and Ward were the bishops that acted and argued
most for this act, which came to be called the five mile
act. All that were the secret favourers of popery pro-
moted it : their constant maxim being, to bring all the
sectaries into so desperate a state, that they should be at
mercy, and forced to desire a toleration on such terms
as the king should think fit to grant it. Clifford began
to make a great figure in the house of commons1. He
was the son of a clergyman, born to a small fortune*, but
was a man of great vivacity. He was reconciled to the
church of Rome before the restoration. Lord Clarendon
had many spies among the priests, and the news of this
was brought him among other things. So, when Clifford
began' first to appear in the house, he got one to recom-
mend him to the lord Clarendon's favour. He looked into
the advice that was brought him : and by comparing

MS. 114. things together, he perceived that he | must be that man :
so he excused himself the best he could. Upon this
Clifford struck in with his enemies, and tied himself par-
ticularly to Bennet, made lord, and afterwards earl of
Arlington. a While the act was before the house of
commons, Vaughan 2, made afterward chief justice of the
common pleas, moved that the word legally might be
added to the word commissioned by the king: but Finch3,
then attorney-general, said that was needless ; since unless
the commission was legal it was no commission, and, to

a [The passage from While the act down to take the oath, was added
subsequently on the opposite page].

1 Not apparently as a speaker;
he is mentioned in the ParL Hist.
as speaking only four times, and then
very briefly.

2 John Vaughan, a member of the
Long Parliament, resigned, and was
regarded as a ' Malignant ' : member
for Cardiganshire 1660-1668 ; Chief

Justice of the Common Pleas, May,
1668 ; died 1674. See supra 277,
354 ; and infra, f. 389.

3 Finch was Solicitor-General. He
did not become Attorney-General
until May, 1670, at the death of Sir
Geoffrey Palmer. See f. 365 for his
character.

of King Charles II. 403

make it legal it must be issued out for a lawful occasion, CHAP. IX.

and to persons capable of it, and must pass in the due form

of law. The other insisted that the addition would clear

all scruples, and procure an universal compliance. But

that could not be obtained ; for it was intended to lay

difficulties in the way of those against whom the act was

levelled J. When the bill came up to the lords, the earl

of Southampton moved for the same addition ; but was

answered by the earl of Anglesea upon the same grounds

on which Finch went. Yet this gave great satisfaction to

many who heard of it, this being the avowed sense of the 226

legislators ; and the whole matter was so explained by

Bridgeman, when Bates with a great many more came into

the court of common pleas to take the oatha. The act

passed : and the nonconformists were put to bgreat straits b. Oct. 1665.

They had no mind to take the oath, and they scarce knew

how to dispose of themselves according to the terms of

the act. Some moderate men took pains to persuade

them to take the oath ; it was said that by endeavour was

only meant an unlawful endeavour ; and that it was so

declared in the debates in both houses. Some judges did

on the bench expound it in that sense, and so c some few °

of them took it ; many more refused it, who were put to

hard shifts to live, being so far separated from the places

from which they draw their chief subsistence. Yet as all

this severity in a time of war, and of such a public calamity,

drew very hard censures on the promoters of it, so it raised

the compassions of their party so much, that I have been

told they were supplied more plentifully at that time than

ever. There was better reason than perhaps those of

Oxford knew to suspect practices against the state.

a See note on page 402. b substituted for hard shifts.

c substituted for many.

1 In his speech on the Occasional solved to make common cause with

Conformity Bill, in 1702, Burnet the Dissenters for a general tolera-

stated that, after the passing of the tion. But see supra 344, where it

Five Mile Act, Bristol called a meet- appears that this meeting was after

ing of the chief Papists, who re- the Act of Uniformity, in 1662.

D d 2

404 The History of the Reign

CHAP. IX. Algernon Sidney, and some others of the common-
wealth party, came to De Witt, and pressed him to think
of an invasion of England and Scotland, and gave him
great assurances of a strong party : and they were bringing
many officers to Holland to join in the undertaking. They
dealt also with some in Amsterdam, who were particularly
sharpened against the king, and were for turning England
again into a commonwealth. The matter was for some
time in agitation at the Hague : but De Witt was against
it, and got it to be laid aside l. He said, their going into
such a design would provoke France to turn against them :
it might engage them in a long war, the consequences of
which could not be foreseen : and, as there was no reason
to think that, while the parliament was so firm to the king,
any discontents could be carried so far as to a general
rising, which these men undertook for, so, he said, what
would the effect be of turning England into a common-
wealth, if it could possibly be brought about, but the ruin
of Holland ? It would naturally draw many of the Dutch
to leave their country, that could not be kept and main-
tained but at a vast charge, and to exchange that with the
plenty and security that England afforded. Therefore all
that he would engage in was, to weaken the trade of
England, and to destroy their fleet ; in which he succeeded
the following year beyond all expectation. The busy men
in Scotland, being encouraged from Rotterdam, went about
the country, to try if any men of weight would set them-
227 selves at the head of their designs for an insurrection. The
earl of Cassillis and Lockhart were the two persons they
resolved to try ; but they did it at so great a distance,
that, from the proposition, there was no danger of mis-
prision. Lord Cassillis had given his word to the king,

1 See Pontalis, Jean de Witt, i. and Mrs. Ady's Sacharissa, 198.

375> 376; Mignet, Negotiations, &c. Compare Ralph, i. 116. For intended

i. 421; Salmon, 578; Ludlow, ii. Dutch aid to the Scotch, see the

291. Sidney had fled at the Restora- Secret Resolutions of the States-

tion, and was unable to obtain per- General, July 15, 1666 ; Memoirs of

mission for his return to England until Mr. William
the end of 1676. Somers Tracts, viii,

of King Charles II. 405

that he would never engage in any plots : and he had got CHAP. IX.
under the king's hand a promise, that he and his family
should not be disturbed, let him serve God in what way he
pleased : so he did not suffer them to come so far as to
make him any proposition. Lockhart did the same. They
seeing no other person that had credit enough in the
country to bring the people about him, gave over all
projects for that year. But, upon the informations that
the king had of their caballing at Rotterdam, he raised
those troops of which mention was formerly made1.

An accident happened this winter at Oxford, too incon-
siderable and too tender to be mentioned, if it were not
that great effects were believed to have followed on it.
The duke had always one private amour after another, in
the managing of which he seemed to stand more in awe of
the duchess, than, considering the inequality of their rank,
could have been imagined. Talbot 2 was looked on as the
chief manager of those intrigues. The duchess's deport-
ment was unexceptionable, which made her authority the
greater. At Oxford there was then a very graceful young
man of quality that belonged to her court, whose service
was so acceptable, that she was thought to look at him in
a particular manner 3. This was so represented to the
duke, that he, being resolved to emancipate himself into
more open practices, took up a jealousy, and put the person

1 See note, supra 377. from the same Memoirs, as also

2 Richard Talbot, afterwards Earl that of Lord Chesterfield. Cole's
and Duke of Tyrconnel, supra 312. MS. Note. In Pepys's Diary, Nov.

3 Harry Sidney, brother of Alger- 16, 1665, Jan. 9, i66f, Oct. 15,
non Sidney, created Earl of Romney 1666, the suspicions concerning the
by William III. Bishop Burnet took duchess and Sidney are noticed. R.
the liberty to tell this story once Upon this Reresby says, 64 : * She
before her daughter Queen Mary, in was a very handsome woman, and
a good deal of company, as the Earl had a great deal of wit ; therefore it
of Jersey, who was present, told me ; was not without reason that Mr.
only with this difference, that he did Sidney, the handsomest youth of his
not conceal the gentleman's name. D. time, of the duke's bed-chamber,
See Walpole's edition of Memoirs was so much in love with her, as
of De Grammont, 245, and his note. appeared to us all, and the duchess
Burnet seems to have taken this not unkind to him, but very inno-
story, and that of Lady Southesk, cently.'

406 The History of the Reign

CHAP. IX. out of his court with so much precipitation, that the thing
became very public. By this means the duchess lost the
power she had over him so entirely, that no method she
could think on was like to recover it, except one. She
began to discover what his religion was, though he still
came not only to church but to sacrament. And upon
that, she, to regain what she had lost, entered into private
discourses with his priests ; but in so secret a. manner, that
there was not for some years after this the least suspicion
given. She began by degrees to slacken in her constant
coming to prayers and to sacrament, in which she had been
before that regular, almost to superstition. She put that on
her ill health : for she fell into an ill habit of body, which
some imputed to the effect of some of the duke's distempers
communicated to her. A story was set about, and generally
believed, that the earl of Southesk1, that had married
a daughter of duke Hamilton, suspecting some familiarities
228 between the duke and his wife, had taken a sure method to
procure a disease to himself, which he communicated to his
MS. 115. wife, and that was by that means set round till it | came to
the duchess, who was so tainted with it, that it was the
occasion of the death of all her children, except the two
daughters, our two queens; and that was believed the cause
of an illness under which she languished long, and died so
corrupted, that in dressing her body after her death, one
of her breasts burst, being a mass of corruption. Lord
Southesk was for some years not ill pleased to have this
believed ; it looked like a peculiar strain of revenge, with
which he seemed much delighted. But I knew he has to
some of his friends denied the whole a story very solemnly.
Another earl2 acted a better part. He did not like a com-

a of the struck out.

1 Robert Carnegie, third Earl of 2 Philip Stanhope, Earl of Chester-

Southesk, married Lady Anne Ha- field ; he married Frances Butler,

milton. See De Grammoni" s Memoirs youngest daughter of the Duke of

on this incident ; Pepys, April 6, Ormond.
1667 ; Marvell, Historical Poem, 43.

of King Charles II. 407

merce that he observed between the duke and his wife. CHAP. IX.
He went and expostulated with him upon it. The duke
fell a commending his wife much. He told him he came
not to seek his wife's character from him : the most
effectual way of his commending her, was to have nothing
to do with her. He added, that if princes would do those
wrongs to subjects, who could not demand such a reparation
of honour as they could from their equals, it would put
them on secreter methods of revenge : for there were in-
juries that men of honour could not bear. And, upon a new
observation he made of the duke's designs upon his wife,
he quitted a very good post, and went with her into the
country, where he kept her till she died. Upon the whole
matter the duke was often ill : the children were born with
ulcers, or they broke out soon after : and all his sons died
young and unhealthy1. This has, as far as any thing what-
soever that could be brought in the way of proof, prevailed
to create a suspicion that so healthy a child as the pretended
prince of Wales could neither be his, nor be born of any
wife with whom he had lived long 2. The violent pain that
his eldest daughter had in her eyes, and the gout which has
so early seized our present queen, are thought the dregs of
a tainted original. Upon which, Willis, the great physician,
being called to consult for one of his sons, gave his
opinion in these words, Mala stamina vitce ; which gave
such offence that he was never called for afterwards.

I know nothing of the councils of the year [i6]66, nor 1666.

1 In the Memoirs ofDe Grammont, and of Boileau the king's surgeon,

the unsavoury story is differently Specimen of Remarks, &c. 13-17. R.

told, as if Lord Southesk was dis- 2 He had one daughter by his second

appointed of his revenge, by his marriage, Louisa Maria Theresa,

lady's having no longer any corre- born in France in 1691 : she died in

spondence with the duke. And as to 1712, much beloved for the sweetness

the well-known Ferguson's account, of her disposition. Her portrait is in

and this author's suggestion, that the small gallery at Versailles. Lind-

James's constitution was ruined by say, Pedigree of the House of Stuart ;

disease, the fact is contradicted by Life and Letters of Charlotte Elizabeth,

the report of Cockburn, who had 77; and, especially, vol. ii. of the folio

been in attendance on his person, edition, f. 602, note.

408

The History of the Reign

CHAP. IX. whose advices prevailed. It was resolved on that the duke
should not go to sea, but that Monk1 should command
the great fleet of between fifty and sixty ships of line, and
that prince Rupert should be sent with a squadron of
about twenty-five ships to meet the French fleet, and to
229 hinder their conjunction with the Dutch : for the French
promised a fleet to join the Dutch, but never sent it 2.
Monk went out so certain of victory that he seemed only
concerned for fear the Dutch should not come out. The
court flattered themselves with the hopes of a very happy
year. But it proved a fatal one : the Dutch came out,
De Witt and some of the States being on board 3. They

June 1-4, engaged the English fleet for two days, in which they had
a manifest superiority ; but it cost them dear, for the
English fought well. But the Dutch were superior in
number4, and were so well furnished with chained shot,

1 This is the last mention in the
text of Monk, who died Jan. 3, 1670.
See the account of his death in the
Diet. Nat. Biog. The memory of
Cromwell's military government was
emphasised in the urgent advice of
James that no successor should be
appointed to his command, ' for that
it was too great a power and trust,
as things stood, to be put in any one
body's hand.' If, however, the office
were continued, he trusted it would
be conferred upon himself. Clarke's
Life of James II, i. 446.

2 Upon the policy of Louis XIV
regarding this war (cf. supra 356)
see the masterly sketch in Mignet,
Negotiations relatives, &c., part ii.
sect. 3. His eyes were fixed upon
the Spanish Low Countries, and he
was anxious not to be compelled to
weaken himself by joining in the
conflict, or to see either nation be-
come stronger through the conquest
of the other. The < celebre ambas-
sade' was sent to London, Feb.
1 664, in the hope of securing peace

(Jusserand, A French Ambassador,
&c., ch. ix) ; but it was useless
against the national desire for war.
Louis himself delayed fulfilling his
treaty obligations with the Dutch,
of April, 1662, as long as possible.
Even when he did so, his nominal
assistance was carefully prevented
from being effective. The diplomacy
of the Dutch had been so skilful
that England began the campaign in
complete isolation. Pontalis, i. 375.

3 John De Witt was not on board
this fleet. Pontalis, Jean de Witt, i.
376-379.

4 The Dutch, through Rupert's
absence, which Pontalis ascribes to
Monk's jealousy, had eighty ships
to Monk's fifty. They ' shot mostly
at masts, sails, rigging, and upper
decks, which so disabled our ships
as to make them useless.' Fleming
Papers, June ai, 1666, H. M. C. Rep.
xii. App. vii. For a detailed account
of this murderous four days' battle
(June 1-4), and its importance in
the history of naval tactics, see

of King Charles II. 409

with a peculiar contrivance of which De Witt had the CHAP. IX.
honour to be thought the inventor, that the English fleet
was quite unrigged, and they were in no condition to work
themselves off. So they must have all been taken, sunk,
or burnt, if Prince Rupert, being yet in the Channel, and
hearing that they were engaged by the continued roaring
of guns, had not made all possible haste to get to them.
He came in good time : and the Dutch, who had suffered
much, seeing so great a force come up, steered off. He
was in no condition to pursue them ; but brought off our
fleet, which saved us a great loss, that seemed otherwise
unavoidable *. The court gave out that it was a victory :
and public thanksgivings were ordered, which was a horrid
mocking of God, and a lying to the world. We had in one
respect reason to thank God, that we had not lost our
whole fleet. But to complete the miseries of this year.
The plague was so sunk in London that the inhabitants
began to return to it, and brought with them a great deal

Mahan, Influence of Sea Power in See supra 298, note. As soon as

History, 1 18, &c. See also, especially, the fleets could be refitted they came

the eyewitness account by Clifford, to close quarters again, July 25,

CaL St. P. Dom. 1665-6, 430, given 4 a.m., to July 26, 5 p.m., with the

in full in the Preface, xix. result that after two days of carnage

1 On June 4, the last day of the the Dutch were driven back into the

battle, desperate fighting began at Texel, while on Aug. 8, 9, Sir

9 a.m. and lasted till dusk, without Robert Holmes attacked and practi-

cessation. The English then fell cally destroyed their merchant fleet

back, but Ruyter could not pursue. of more than 150 vessels in the

He had lost three vice-admirals, harbour of Vlie, and burned all the

2,000 men, and four ships. The houses on Vlie and Schelling ' as

English fleet lost 5,000 men killed, bonfires for his good success at sea.'

and 3,000 prisoners ; eight ships Cat. St. P. Dom. 1666-7, 22, 27, 28,

were sunk or burnt, and nine more 32. See, again, Clifford's eyewitness

captured. See the reasons given by official account of the July battle.

Penn for the defeat, in Pepys, July Id. 1665-6, 579, &c. In the latter

4, 1666. In his despatch to the volume, as in the preceding one, there

Duke of York, Rupert admits some is abundant evidence of the sympathy

errors, ' not of courage but of con- with which many Nonconformists

duct.' H.M.C.Rep.v.3i$. Clifford viewed the cause of the Dutch, in

however says, ' If the king do not hopes of an alteration of govern-

cause some of the captains to be ment, or at least of their own condi-

hanged,he will never be well served.' tion in case of the enemy's success.

4io

The History of the Reign

CHAP. IX. of manufacture, which was lying on the hands of the
clothiers and others, now in the second year of the war, in
which trade and all other consumption were very low. It
was reckoned that a peace must come next winter \ The
merchants were preparing to go to market as soon as possible.
The summer had been the driest that was known of some
years, and London being for the most part built of timber
filled up with plaister, all was extreme dry. On the second
of September a fire broke out, that raged for three days as
if it had a commission to devour every thing that was in its
way. On the fourth day it stopt, in the midst of very
combustible matter2.

I will not enlarge on the extent nor the destruction
made by the fire : many books are full of it. That which
is still a great secret is, whether it was casual, or raised
on design. The English fleet had landed on the Vlie, an
island lying near the Texel, and had burnt it : upon which
some came to De Witt, and offered a revenge, that they
would set London on fire, if they might be well furnished
and well rewarded for it. He rejected the proposition :
230 for he said he would not make the breach wider, nor the
quarrel irreconcilable. He said it was brought him by
one of the Labadists3, as sent to him by some others.
He made no farther reflections on the matter till the city
was burnt. Then he began to suspect there had been
a design, and that they had intended to draw him into it,
and to lay the odium of it upon the Dutch. But he could

1 ' If the warre continue, which
God forbid, I am sad to think what
will become of us the next yeare ;
may it prove happy to all, and let
not a 66 come these hundred yeares
againe.' Sir R. Burgoyne to Sir R.
Verney, Verney MSS. Dec. 31, 1666.

2 Cat. St. P. Dom. 1666-7, 99, 107,
&c.; 1670, Addenda, 712.

3 Followers of Labadie the mystic
(1610-1674). He was brought up
by the Jesuits, and joined successively
the Jansenists and Carmelites. By

the latter he was known as S. Jean
Baptiste. In 1650 he became a Pro-
testant, and was a pastor at Mont-
auban, Orange, and Geneva ; but
was afterwards excommunicated for
refusing the confession of faith. His
mysticism included the assertion that
neither law nor ceremony was
needed by one whose spirit had been
enlightened. His followers were
chiefly in the little Duchy of Cleves.
See Larousse, Dictionnaire du Dix-
neuvieme Siccle.

of King Charles II.

411

hear no news of those who had sent that proposition to CHAP. IX
him. In the April before, some commonwealth's men
were found in a plot, and hanged ; who at their execution
confessed they had been spoke to to assist in a design of
burning London on | the third of September. This was MS. n6.
printed in the Gazette of that week, which I my self read 1.
Now the fire breaking out on the second, made all people
conclude that there was a design some time before on foot
for doing it. The papists 2 were generally charged with it.
One Hubert, a French papist3, was seized on in Essex, as
he was getting out of the way in great confusion : he con-

1 I.e. The Gazette of April 23-26,
1666. Pepys had this fact pointed
out to him, Dec. 13, 1666. The day
named is the third (not the second),
4 as being found by Lilly's Almanack,
and a scheme erected for that
purpose, to be a lucky day, a planet
then ruling which prognosticated
the downfall of Monarchy.' The
plot mentioned was evidently in-
considerable, as no mention of it
appears in the royal speech at the
opening of the session in September,
1666. Reresby, however, speaks of
4 the late plot.' Cf. Ludlow, ii. 489.

2 Or the 'Commonwealth's men,'
the connexion of whom with Sept. 3
was more obvious. The report of
the Parliamentary Committee, ap-
pointed in Jan. i66f , was ' full of
manifest testimonies that it was by
a wicked designe.' Marvell, ii. 208.
In June, 1672, Marvell again writes :
' Here have been several fires of
late. One at St. Catherine's, which
burned about six score or two hun-
dred houses, and some seven or
eight ships. Another in Bishopsgate
Street. Another in Critchet Fryars.
Another in Southwark ; and some
else where. You may be sure all
the old talk is hereupon revived.'

3 ' Hubert, who was known to all
his countrymen here, as well as the

whole town of Rouen in Normandy,
to have been born and bred a pro-
testant, lived a protestant, and owned
himself to be a protestant, on his
examination as well as at his
execution, if a man who was down-
right distracted may be said to be of
one religion more than another. Yet
the committee of the house of com-
mons reported him to be a papist,
although they allowed he professed
himself to be a protestant. But what
is more considerable, by the oath of
Lawrence Peterson, the master of
the vessel, who brought Hubert to
England at this time, he was still
on board, and did not set his foot on
English ground till two days after the
fire began.' Bevill Higgons's Post-
script, 342. R. Echard confirms the
statement of Hubert's protestantism.
In the Portland MSS., H. M. C. Rep.
xiv. App. ii. 298-301, there is a
detailed account, in which it states
that 'Hubert, a Frenchman of Roan,
a watchmaker,' was apprehended at
Romford and confessed. It is clear
from the account that his brain was
turned. See Pepys, Feb. 24, 166^ ;
and Cal. St. P. Dom. 1666-7, 191,
209. ' The wretched Frenchman who
said he fired London has been
executed at Tyburn, but denied the
fact at the gallows,' &c.

412 The History of the Reign

CHAP. ix. fessed he had begun the fire, and persisted in his confession
to his death ; for he was hanged upon no other evidence
but that of his own confession. It is true he gave so
broken an account of the whole matter that he was
thought mad : yet he was blindfolded, and carried to
several places of. the city : and then, his eyes being opened,
he was asked if that was the place : and he being carried
to wrong places, after he looked round about for some
time, he then said that was not the place : but when he
was brought to the place where it first broke out, he
affirmed that was the true place. And Tillotson told me
that Howell, then the recorder of London, was with him,
and had much discourse with him ; and he concluded it
was impossible that it could be a melancholy dream. The
horror of the fact, and the terror of death, and perhaps
some engagements in confession, might put him in such
disorder, that it was not possible to draw a clear account
of any thing from him but of what related to himself.
Tillotson, who believed the city was burnt on design, told
me a circumstance that made the papists employing such
a creased man in such a service more credible. Langhorn1,
the popish counsellor at law, who for many years passed for
a protestant, was despatching a half-witted man to manage
the elections in Kent before the Restoration. Tillotson
being present, and observing what a sort of a man he was,
asked Langhorn how he could employ him in such services.
Langhorn answered, it was a maxim with him in dangerous
services to employ none but half-witted men, if they could
be but secret and obey orders : for if they should change
their minds, and turn informers instead of agents, it would
be easy to discredit them, and to carry off the weight of
231 any discoveries they could make, and shew they were
madmen, and so not like to be trusted in critical things.
The most extraordinary passage, though it is but a pre-
sumption, was told me by doctor Lloyd and the countess
of Clarendon, who had a great estate in the New River

1 Upon Langhorn, see infra, ff. 427, 430, 465.

of King Charles II. 413

that is brought from Ware to London, which is brought CHAP. IX.

together at Islington, where there is a great room full of

pipes that convey it through all the streets of London.

The constant order of that matter was, to set all the pipes

a running on Saturday night, that so the cisterns might

be all full by Sunday morning, there being a more than

ordinary consumption of water on Saturdays. There was

one Grant, a papist 1, under whose name sir William Petty

published his observations on the bills of mortality : he

applied himself to Lloyd some time before, who had great

credit with the countess of Clarendon 2, and said he could

raise that estate considerably, if she would make him

a trustee for her. His schemes were probable : and he

was made one of the board that governed that matter :

and by that he had a right to come as oft as he pleased,

to view their works at Islington. He went thither the

Saturday before the fire broke out, and called for the key

of the place where the heads of the pipes were, and turned

all the cocks that were then open, and stopped the water,

and went away, and carried the key with him 3. So when

the fire broke out next morning, they opened the pipes

1 John Grant, or Graunt, was a to Petty as the real, or at any rate

clothier who acquired a considerable the joint, author. In 1683 Petty

fortune. In the Civil War he be- himself published similar Observa-

came Captain and Major in the City tions on the Dublin Bills of Mor-

Train Bands. He was elected to talily. Graunt fell into pecuniary

the Common Council, and was often embarrassment after the Fire, and

employed as an arbitrator in trade Petty assisted him liberally. He

disputes. His friendship for Petty died in 1674. Chalmers's Biog. Diet.,

was formed before 1651, for in that and Lord E. Fitzmaurice, Life of Sir

year he secured for the latter the W. Petty, 180, &c.
Professorship of Music at Gresham 2 The Countess of Clarendon was

College. Early in Charles II's reign a very weak woman, but a great

he was converted to Catholicism. pretender to learning and devotion ;

He published the Observations on which occasioned her conversing

the Bills of Mortality in the City of much with the clergy : and the

London in 1661, the first work of Revelations had turned Lloj'd's

the kind in English, and Charles head, who was naturally a jealous,

thereupon ordered him to be en- passionate man. D.
rolled as a member of the Royal 3 It is strange that Swift should

Society. Internal evidence — especi- have missed these five 'and's in

ally the medical illustrations — points one sentence.

The History of the Reign

CHAP. IX. in the streets to find water, but there was none ; so some
hours were lost in sending to Islington, where the door
was to be broke open, and the cocks turned ; and it was
long before the water got to London. Grant indeed
denied that he had turned the cocks; but the officer of
the works affirmed that he had, according to order, set
them all a running, and that no person had got the keys
from him besides Grant, who confessed he had carried
away the keys, but pretended he did it without design l.
There were many other stories set about, as that the
papists in several places had asked if there was no news
of the burning of London, and that it was talked of in
many parts beyond sea, long before the news could get
thither from London. In this matter I was much deter-
mined by what sir Thomas Littleton, the father, told me a.
He was treasurer of the navy in conjunction with Osborn,
232 afterwards made lord treasurer, who supplanted him in
that post, and got it all into his own hands 2. He had a
very bad opinion of the king ; and thought that he had
worse intentions than his brother, but that he had a more
dexterous way of covering and managing them ; only his

* He was a man of a strong head and a sound judgment. He had just as
much knowledge in trade, history, the disposition of Europe, and the constitution
of England, as served to feed and direct his own thoughts, and no more. He
lived all the summer long in London, where I was his next neighbour, and had
for seven years a constant and daily conversation with him. struck out.

1 The following record is produced
by Bevill Higgons, 149, in contra-
diction to this account. ' Islington,
March 3, 172^. Captain John Grant
admitted a member of the New River
Company, on Tuesday, September 25,
1666. (Twenty-three days after the
fire.) No particular member of the
company has power to order the
main to be shut down ; nor can it
ever be done without a particular
direction of the board, of which
minutes are always taken; and there
are no minutes of this, as will appear

by the company's books.' Cole, in
a MS. note, refers to Maitland's
History of London, vol. i. pp. 435,
436, where the above extract from
the company's books is also inserted.
R. See also Defence of Dr. Cock-
burn, 93, and Salmon, 582.

2 Littleton and Osborn succeeded
Anglesey in the Treasurership of the
Navy in October, 1668, and Osborn
held the place alone in September,
1671. Sir Thomas Littleton, the
son, was Treasurer of the Navy in
the reign of William III.

of King Charles II. 415

laziness made him less earnest in prosecuting them * a. CHAP. IX.

His chief estate lay in the city, not far from the place

where the fire broke out, though it did not turn that

way. He was one of the committee of the House of

Commons that examined all the presumptions of the

city's being burnt on design : and he often assured me

that there was no clear presumption well made out about

it, and that many stories that were published with great

assurance came to nothing upon a strict examination2.

He was at that time that the inquiry was made | in MS. 117.

employment at court. So whether that biassed him or

not, I cannot tellb. There was so great a diversity of

opinions in the matter that I must leave it under the same

uncertainty in which I found it. If the French and Dutch

had been at that time designing an impression elsewhere,

it might have been more reasonable to suppose it was

done on design, to distract our affairs : but it fell out at

ft He had generally the character of the ablest parliament man in his time.
struck out. b ; and having once given it out that he thought there

was no design in the fire, he might perhaps be engaged in honour to persist
still in that opinion, struck out.

1 See Pepys, Oct. 29, 1668, where Parl. Hist. iv. 1322 ; Reresby (Cart-
he mentions Littleton as 'a creature wright), 209.

of Arlington's.' On July 18, 1666, '2 Marvell definitely espouses the
he describes him as ' one of the theory that it was ' acted by Hubert,
greatest speakers in the House of hired by Pieddeloup, two French-
Commons, and the usual second to men/ in Growth of Popery and Arbi-
the great Vaughan.' On Feb. 14, trary Power (Grosart), 259. Amid the
166^, he names him with Sir Robert wild nonsense talked it is refreshing
Howard and Lord Vaughan as to come upon Williamson's memo-
'Undertakers' for the Court. Cf. randum, Cal.St.P.Dom, 1666-7, 175,
infra 451. On June 12, 1678, Little- that ' after many careful examina-
ton spoke in favour of the Bill to tions by Council and His Majesty's
incapacitate all Papists from sitting ministers, nothing has been found
in either H.OUSC. He does not appear to argue the fire of London to have
to have sat in either the third or been caused by other than the hand
fourth Parliament; but in the fifth of God, a great wind, and a very dry
and last he took an active part in the season.' Cf. supra 411, note. For
exclusion debates. See his speech the stories ' published with good as-
in favour of one of the ' Expedients,' surance,' see id. no, 121.

416 The History of the Reign

CHAP. IX. a dead time, when no advantage could be made of it.
And it did not seem probable that the papists a engaged
in the design merely to impoverish and ruin the nation,
for they had nothing ready then to graft upon the con-
fusion that this put all people in. Above twelve thousand
houses were burnt down, with the greatest part of the
furniture and merchandise that was in them. All means
used to stop it proved ineffectual ; though the blowing up
of houses was the most effectual. But the wind was so
high, that fleaks of fire and burning matter were carried
in the air cross several streets, so that the fire spread not
only in the next neighbourhood, but at a great distance.
The king and the duke were almost all the day long on
horseback, with the guards, seeing to all that could be
done, either for quenching the fire, or for the carrying off
persons and goods to the fields all about London l. The
most astonishing circumstance of that dreadful confla-
gration was, that, notwithstanding the great destruction
that was made, and the great confusion in the streets,
I could never hear of any one person that was either burnt
or trode to death. The king was never observed to be
so much struck with any thing in his whole life as with
this. But the citizens were not so well satisfied with the
duke's behaviour ; they thought it looked too gay and too
little concerned. A jealousy of his being concerned in it
was spread about with great industry, but with very little
233 appearance of truth. Yet it grew to be generally believed,
chiefly after he owned that he was a papist.

a had struck out.

Fleming Papers, Sept. 13, 1666.

of King Charles II.

4*7

CHAPTER X.

THE PENTLAND REBELLION AND INDULGENCE IN

SCOTLAND.

IN Scotland the fermentation went very high. Turner
was sent again into the west, in October this year, and he
began to treat the country at the old rate 1. The people
were alarmed, and saw they were to be undone. They met
together, and talked with some fiery ministers 2 ; Semple,
Maxwell, Welsh, and Guthrie were the chief incendiaries.
Two gentlemen that had served in the wars, one a lieu-
tenant-colonel, Wallace, and the other that had been
a major, Learmouth, were the best officers they had to
rely on 3. The chief gentlemen of those counties were all

CHAP. X.

1 On Turner see supra 378. He had
been sent in the spring. The ' fer-
mentation' was increased by the
proclamation of the Privy Council of
the orders enjoining all heritors and
landlords to be answerable for their
servants and tenants being orderly
and refraining from attending con-
venticles.

2 Cruikshank, in his History of the
Church of Scotland, i. 219, denies
that this rising of the people was the
effect of any previous consultation
with their ministry, which Bishop
Burnet here intimates, as Cruikshank
expresses himself, without any
ground or proof. R. See also
Memoirs of Mr. William Veitch, ed.
McCrie, 380. But Burnet's account
is supported by Rothes's letter to
Lauderdale, March 20, 1666. Lau-
dcrdale Papers, i. 235.

3 Wodrow, ii. 25 ; Life of John
Livingstone (Wodrow Soc. Select
Biog.), 300. The Privy Council
mention also Colonel Gray (sc.
Andrew Gray, a mei-chant in Edin-
burgh ; Wodrow, ii. 18), as one of
the chief commanders. Lauderdale
Papers, i. 246. James Wallace, of

VOL. I. E

Auchanes, of the family of Craigie, left
a narrative of the whole affair, which
is contained in full in the Memoirs of
Mr. William Veitch, and of which
extracts may be found in Maidment,
Scottish Ballads, Historical and Tra-
ditional(jQ6Q\'\\. 281. Wallace was
vigorously pursued after the defeat,
but succeeded in escaping to Holland,
where he lived almost till his death
in 1678. In July, 1676, Charles wrote
to ask for his surrender by the States,
and the demand was after long argu-
ment acceded to, though not appa-
rently acted on. Wodrow, ii. 344,
compared with Memoirs of Veitch.
His sentence of forfeiture of life and
fortune, passed Aug. 15, 1667 and
ratified in 1669, was rescinded at
the Revolution. Semple was tortured
and executed in 1684. Id. iv. 152.
Gabriel Maxwell, minister of Dun-
donald, turned informer. Id. ii. 28.
John Welsh, minister of Irongray,
also escaped, and was present at
Bothwell Brigg, but was captured
and executed, 1685. Id. iv. 235.
John Guthrie, minister at Tarbolton,
was executed, 1667. Id. ii. 75.
Major Joseph Learmont, who com-

1666.

4i8

The History of the Reign

CHAP. X. clapt up in prison, as was formerly told ; so that preserved
them : otherwise they must either have engaged with the
people, or have lost their interest among them. The
people were told that the fire of London had put things in
that confusion at court, that any vigorous attempt would
disorder all the king's affairs. If the new levied troops had
not stood in their way, they would have been able to have
carried all things before them : for the two troops of
guards, with the regiment of foot guards, would not [have]
been able to have kept their ground before them. The
people, as some of them told me afterwards, were made to
believe that the whole nation was in the same disposition.
So on the thirteenth of November they run together : and
two hundred of them went to Dumfries, where Turner then
lay with a few soldiers about him ; the greatest part of his
men being then out in parties for the levying of fines. So
they surprised him before he could get to his arms : other-
wise, he told me, he would have been killed rather than
taken, since he expected no mercy from them. With him-
self they seized his papers and instructions, by which it
appeared he had been gentler than his orders were. So
they resolved to keep him, and exchange him as occasion
should be offered : but they did not tell him what they
intended to do with him ; so he thought they were keeping
him till they might hang him up with the more solemnity.
There was a considerable cash in his hands, partly for the
pay of his men, partly of what he had raised in the country,
that was seized : but he to whom they trusted the keeping
of it run away with it *. They spread a report, which they
have since printed, and it passed for some time current,
that this rising was the effect of a sudden heat that the
country was put in by seeing one of their neighbours tied

manded part of the horse, escaped,
but was condemned, and on his cap-
ture in 1682 ordered to be executed,
but was reprieved and imprisoned in
the Bass. Id. ii. 70; iii. 410.

1 This was Andrew Gray, men-

tioned in the note above. Cf. Kirkton,
232, note. But see the Memoirs of
Veitch, where the accusation is dis-
proved. Upon the capture of Turner,
see his Memoirs (Bannatyne Club),
and Wodrow, ii. 18, note.

of King Charles II. 419

on a horse hand and foot, and carried away, only because CHAP. X.
he could not pay a high fine that was set upon him ; and
that upon this provocation, the neighbours, who did not
know how soon such usage would fall to their own turn,
run together, and rescued him ; and that they, fearing some
severe usage for that, they kept together, and that others 234
coming in to them they went in and seized on Turner.
But this was a story raised only to beget compassion : for,
after the insurrection was quashed, the privy council sent
some round the country, to examine the violences that had
been committed, particularly in the parish where it was
given out that this was done. I read the report they made
to the council, and all the depositions that the people of the
country brought before them : but this was not mentioned
in any one of them.

The news of this rising was brought to Edinburgh, fame
increasing their numbers to some thousands. And this
happening to be near Carlisle, the governor of that place
sent an express to court, in which the strength of the party
was magnified, much beyond the truth. The earl of
Rothes was then at court, who had assured the king that
all things were so well managed in Scotland, that they
were in perfect quiet : there were, he said, some stubborn
fanatics still left, that would be soon subdued: but there
was no danger from any thing that they or their party could
do T. He gave no credit to the express from Carlisle : but
two days after the news was confirmed by an express from
Scotland 2. Sharp was then at the head of the govern-
ment : so he managed this little war, and gave all the
orders and directions in it. Dalyel was commanded to
draw all the force they had together, which lay then

1 ' I will positively say ther is no On June 23, however, he regrets

hazard nor scarcely a possibilitie of ' the strang evill affectednes of our

anie sturreing in this countrie to pipill in this countrie.'

oppose the esteablished lawes and 2 The alarm at Court is shown in

gouverment off Church and State.' the king's instructions to the Earl of

Rothes to Lauderdale, March 20, Carlisle, Rothes, &c. Cal. St. P.

1666. Lauderdale Papers, i. 236. Dom. 1666-7, 282, 283.

E e 2

420

The History of the Reign

CHAP. X. dispersed in quarters. When that was done, he marched
westward. A great many run to the rebels, who came to be

MS. 118. called the Whigs1. | At Lanerick, in Clydesdale, they had

a solemn fast day, in which, after much praying, they re-

newed the covenant, and set out their manifesto, in which

they denied that they rose against the king ; they com-

plained of the oppression under which they had groaned ;

they desired that episcopacy might be put down, and that

presbytery and the covenant might be set up, and their min-

isters restored again to them ; and then they promised that

they would be in all other things the king's most obedient

subjects. The earl of Argyll raised fifteen hundred men,

and wrote to the council that he was ready to march upon

order. Sharp thought that if he came into the country,

either he or his men would certainly join with the rebels :

so he sent him no orders at all ; but he was at the charge

of keeping his men together to no purpose. Sharp was all

the while in a dreadful consternation, and wrote dismal

letters to court, praying that the forces which lay in the

north of England might be ordered down ; for he wrote

they were surrounded with the rebels, and did not know

235 what was become of the king's forces 2. He also moved

that the council would go and shut themselves up within

the castle of Edinburgh ; but that was opposed by the rest

of the board, as an abandoning of the town, and the

betraying an unbecoming fear, which might very much

encourage both the rebels and all such as intended to

1 Upon this name see supra 73,
note.

'2 Lord Bellenden, writing to
Lauderdale, Dec. n, 1666, says:
' Le jour que les Rebels ce sont
montre proche de cet vil, il estoit
dans la plus grand confusion du
monde, tantot voulan se retirer chez
luy, tantot a Bervick, tantot ce
casher dans un coign prive, qu'il ne
ce pu pas dire la confusion et
timidite de son esprit.' Lauderdale
Papers, i. 260. Alexander Burnet,

writing to Sheldon, Dec. 8, 20, 1666,
says, however, ' My Lord St. Andrews
hath given a very extraordinary
proofe both of his prudence and
resolution in managing the counsell.'
Sheldon MSS. Of Alexander Burnet
himself we read that he was ' deadly
sick ' when the rising took place, but
that ' the breaking out of the rebels
has cured him.' Cal. St. P. Dom.
1666-7, Nov. 6 and 22, 244, 280. For
accounts of the progress and results
of the rebellion, see id. 295, &c.

of King Charles II. 421

go over to them. Orders were given out for raising CHAP. X.
the country, but there was no militia yet formed. In the
mean while Dalyel followed the rebels as close as he could.
He published a proclamation of pardon, as he was ordered,
to all that should in twenty-four hours' time return to their
own houses, and declared all that continued any longer in
arms rebels. He found the country was so well affected
towards them, that he could get no sort of intelligence but
what his own parties brought in to him1. The Whigs
marched towards Edinburgh, and came within two mile of
the town, but finding neither town nor country declared
for them, and that all the hopes their leaders had given
them proved false, they lost heart. From being once
above two thousand, they were now come to be not above
eight or nine hundred. So they resolved to return back to
the west, where they knew the people were of their side,
and where they could more easily disperse themselves, and
get either into England or Ireland. The ministers were
very busy in all those counties, plying people of all ranks
not to forsake their brethren in this extremity ; and they
had got a company of about three or fourscore gentlemen
together, who were marching towards them, when they
heard of their defeat : and upon that they dispersed them-
selves. The rebels thought to have marched back by the
way of Pentland hills. They were not much concerned for
the few horses they had, and knew that Dalyel, whose horse
was fatigued with a fortnight's constant march, could not
follow them ; and if they had gained but one night more in
their march, they had got out of his reach. But on the
twenty-eighth of November, about an hour before sun-set,
he came up to them. They were posted on the top of Nov. 28,
a hill 2 : so he engaged with great disadvantage. They,

1 This circumstance is confirmed in the west, to that party, that my

by what is said by the Archbishop of lord commissioner complains of these

Glasgow, in a letter to Sheldon, that are known to be returned home

dated Dec. 27, 1666 \JBhcldon MSS., to their houses, few or none can be

Bodl.], that ' so great and general is secured or apprehended. R.
the affection of the people, especially 2 Rullion Green, where the fight

422

The History of the Reign

CHAP. X. finding they could not get off, stopt their march. Their
ministers did all they could by preaching and praying to
infuse courage into them : and they sung the seventy-
fourth and the seventy-eighth Psalms, and so they turned
on the king's forces. They received the first charge that
was given by the troop of guards very resolutely, and put
them in disorder, but that was all the action ; for im-
mediately they lost all order, and run for their lives. It
was now dark : about forty were killed on the spot, and
a hundred and thirty were taken. The rest were favoured
by the darkness of the night and the weariness of the
king's troops, that were not in case to pursue them, and had
no great heart to it : for they were a poor harmless com-
236 pany of men, become mad by oppression T : and they had
taken nothing during all the time they had been together,
but what had been freely given them by the country
people. The rebellion was broke with the loss only of five
of the king's side. The general came next day into
Edinburgh with his prisoners.

took place, is not the top of a hill,
but an alp or upper plateau of the
Pentlands. There is a detailed ac-
count of the skirmish from Lauder-
dale's younger brother, Charles
Maitland of Haltoun, who was
present, in the Lauderdale Papers,
i. 248, which should be compared
with Wallace's Narrative. For the
cruelties which followed, see id. 252,
253, &c. Of the ministers, ' the gal-
lantest, whose name was Cruckshank,
receaved the just reward for rebel-
lioun upon the feild, which is death
and damnation.' Id. 255. Cf. Maid-
ment's Scottish Pasquils, 232.

1 ' Ther be some of them the most
obdurat villains that ever I did see
or heard of, 'the rest simple misled
poore people, upon pretence of re-
ligion, mantayning of the Covenant,
and the outing of prelats ; some
of them will doubtless be putt to the
torture before they be execute.'

Bellenden to Lauderdale, Dec. i,
1666, Lauderdale Papers, i. 252 ;
Cal. St. P. Dom. 1666 7, 325.
Rothes's account is similar: 'Ther
are now in this prisoun house above
one hundred and twentie, all of them
being onlie mean beggerlie fellowes,
bot stubborne in ther wicked and
rebellious way . . . which render
them in my opinion uncapable of
mercie. But the number being great,
and the persouns inconsiderable, I
shall intreat to know his Maties
pleasure, if I shall cause put them
all to the tryall, and so hang them,
or if they shall be banished the king-
dome, and sent to Barbados. This
I am pressed to say by severalls of
the Councell, not that I am a wearie
of causing hang such rebellious
traitors.' Id. 254. See Alexander
Burnet's advice to Williamson, Cal.
St. P. Dom. 1666-7, 330.

of King Charles II. 423

The two archbishops were now delivered out of all their CHAP. X*
fears : and the common observation a, that cruelty and
cowardice go together13, was too visibly verified on this
occasion. Lord Rothes came down full of rage : and that
being inflamed by the two archbishops, he resolved to pro-
ceed with the utmost severity against the prisoners.
Burnet advised the hanging of all those who would not
renounce the covenant, and would not promise to conform
to the laws for the future: but that was thought too
severe ; yet he was sent up to London, to procure of the
king an instruction that they should tender the declaration
renouncing the covenant to all who were thought dis-
affected, and to proceed against those who refused that as
against seditious persons. The best of the episcopal clergy
set upon the bishops, to lay hold on this opportunity for
regaining the affections of the country, by becoming inter-
cessors for the prisoners, and for the country, that was like
to be quartered on and eat up for the favour they had
expressed to them. Many of the bishops went into this,
and particularly Wishart of Edinburgh, though a rough
man, and sharpened by ill usage 1 ; yet upon this occasion
he expressed a very Christian temper, such as became one
who had felt what the rigours of a prison had been ; for he
sent every day very liberal supplies to the prisoners : which
was indeed done by the whole town in so bountiful
a manner, that many of them, who being shut up had
neither air nor exercise, were in greater danger by their
plenty, than they had been by all their unhappy campaign.
But Sharp could not be | mollified. On the contrary, he MS. 119.
encouraged the ministers in the disaffected counties to
bring in all the informations they could gather, both
against the prisoners and against all who had been among
them, that they might be sought for and proceeded against.
Most of those got over to Ireland. But the ministers

a 5 struck out. b and that in all councils the clergy are of the cruel side,

struck out.

1 See supra 252.

424 The History of the Reign

CHAP. X. acted so ill a part, so unbecoming their character, that the
aversion of the country to them was increased to all
possible degrees. They looked on them now as wolves,
and not as shepherds. It was a moving sight to see ten
of the prisoners hanged upon one gibbet at Edinburgh :
237 thirty-five more were sent to their countries, and hanged up
before their own doors ; their ministers all the while using
them hardly, and declaring them damned for their re-
bellion. They might all have saved their lives, if they
would have renounced the covenant a. They did all at
their death give their testimony, according to their phrase,
to the covenant, and to all that had been done pursuant to
it : and they expressed great joy in their sufferings. Most
of them were but mean and inconsiderable men in all
respects, yet even these were firm and inflexible in their
persuasions1. Many of them escaped, notwithstanding the
great search was made for them. Guthrie2, the chief of
their preachers, was hid in my mother's house, who was
bred to her brother's principles, and could never be moved
from them. He died next spring. One McKail, that was
only a probationer preacher, who had been chaplain in sir
James Stewart's house, had gone from Edinburgh to them,
It was believed he was sent by the party in town, and that
he knew their correspondents: so he was put to the
torture, which in Scotland they call the boots ; for they
put a pair of iron boots close on the leg, and drive wedges
between these and the leg. The common torture was only
to drive these in the calf of the leg : but I have been told
they were sometimes driven upon the chine bone. He
bore the torture with great constancy : and either he could
say nothing, or he had the firmness not to discover those
who had trusted him. Every man of them could have
saved his own life, if he would accuse any other : but they

a : so they were really a sort of martyrs for it. struck out.

1 Or, as Rothes put it, ' damd in- James Guthrie, who was hanged in
corrigeable phanaticks,' ' damd fules.' 1661. See supra 226.

2 William Guthrie, brother of

of King Charles II. 425

were all true to their friends *. McKail, for all the pain of CHAP. X.
the torture, died as in a rapture of joy : his last words were,
Farewell sun, moon, and stars, farewell kindred and friends,
farewell world and time, farewell weak and frail body ;
welcome eternity, welcome angels and saints, welcome
Saviour of the world, and welcome God the Judge of all :
which he spoke with a voice and manner that struck all
that heard it2. His death was the more censured, because
it came to be known afterwards, that Burnet, who had
come down before his execution, had brought with him
a letter from the king, in which he approved of all that
they had done, but added, that he thought there was
blood enough shed, and therefore he ordered that such of
the prisoners as would promise to obey the laws for the
future should be set at liberty, and that the incorrigible
should be sent to plantations 3. Burnet let the execution
go on, before he produced his letter, pretending there was
no council-day between ; but he, who knew the contents of
it, ought to have moved the lord Rothes to call an extra-
ordinary council to prevent the execution. So that blood 238
was laid on him. He was, contrary to his natural temper,
very violent at that time, much inflamed by his family, and
by all about him.a Thus this rebellion, that might have
been so turned in the conclusion of it that the clergy might
have gained reputation and honour by a wise and merciful
conduct, did now exasperate the country more than ever
against the church. The forces were ordered to lie in the
west, where Dalyel acted the Muscovite too grossly4: he

"• He was condemned by his best friends as very unjust and deceitful in liis
private dealings, and fell under the censure of being a very bad man,
ivitii a fair and grave appearance, struck out.

1 Rothes complains bitterly of ii. 59, note. McKail was hanged, a
their ' unparalleled obdurdnes ' in few days after the torture. See the
refusing to give information. curious details given in Memoirs of

2 Like Renwick, in 1683, Hugh Veitch, 35, note.

McKail believed 'that if the Lord 3 See Lady Margaret Kennedy's

could be tyed to any place it is to letter of Feb. 2, i667(Bannatyne Club),

the mosses and muirs of Scotland.' * Dalyel (Dec. 6, 1666) advised

Webster MSS, Cf. Wodrow, i. 304 ; Lauderdale that it was not possible

426

The History of the Reign

CHAP, X. threatened to spit men and to roast them, and killed some
in cold blood, or rather in hot blood ; for he was then
drunk when he ordered one to be hanged, because he would
not tell where his father was,, for whom he was in search a.
When he heard of any that did not go to church; he would
not trouble himself to set a fine upon him, but he set as
many soldiers upon him as should eat him up in a night.
By this means all people were struck with such a terror
that they came regularly to church. And the clergy were
so delighted with it, that they used to speak of that time
as the poets do of the golden age. They never interceded
for any compassion to their people ; nor did they take care
to live more regularly, or to labour more carefully. They
looked on the soldiery as their patrons : they were ever in
their company, complying with them in their excesses, and,
if they were not much wronged, they rather led them into
them than checked them for them. Dalyel himself and his
officers were so disgusted with them, that they increased
the complaints, that had now more credit from them than
from those of the country, who were looked on as their
enemies.1' Things of so strange a pitch in vice were told
of them, that they seemed scarce credible. The person,
whom I believed the best as to all such things, was one sir
MS. 120. John Cunningham, an eminent lawyer, | who had an estate
in the country, and was the most extraordinary man of his
profession in that kingdom *. He was episcopal beyond

a , upon some information that was brought him. struck out. b Some

scandals of a crying nature broke out on some of them, who fled the country
upon it, but these left an ill savour upon all the rest, struck out.

to secure the country ' without the
inhabitens be removet or destroied.'
Lauderdale Papers, i. 255. Writing
to Rothes on Dec. 29, he says : ' If
I be not totale desevet, without ex-
tirpation the moist pairts of this
countray vil second this rebellion
with a girter.' Dr. Webster s MSS. It
is interesting to find the Archbishop
of Glasgow, Alexander Burnet, en-
dorsing this opinion in a letter to

Sheldon, Aug. 9, 1667, 'If his
counsell had been followed I am
confident this kingdome had (by this
tyme) beene in a very happy and
quiet condition.' Lauderdale Papers,
ii. App. Letter xxxii.

1 Sir John Cunningham of Lam-
brughton was one of the counsel
assigned to defend Argyll at his trial
in 1661. He was made a Baronet of
Nova Scotia in 1669; was suspended

of King Charles II. 427

most men in Scotland, who for the far greatest part thought CHAP. X.
that forms of government were in their own nature in-
different, and might be either good or bad according to the
hands in which they fell ; whereas he thought episcopacy
was of divine right, settled by Christ. He was not only
very learned in the civil and canon law, and in the philo-
logical learning, but was very universal in all other
learning : he was a great divine, and well read in the
fathers and ecclesiastical history. He was, above all,
a man of eminent probity, and of a sweet temper, and
indeed one of the piousest x men of the nation. The state
of the church in those parts went to his heart : for it was
not easy to know how to keep an even hand between the
perverseness of the people on the one side, and the vices of 239
the clergy on the other. They looked on all those that
were sensible of their miscarriages, as enemies of the church.
It was after all hard to believe all that was set about
against them a.

The king's affairs in England forced him to soften his 166?.
government every where. So at this time the earls of
Tweeddale and Kincardine went to court, and laid before the
king the ill state the country was in. Sir Robert Moray
talked often with him about it 2. Lord Lauderdale was
more cautious, by reason of the jealousy of his being
a presbyterian. Upon all which, the king resolved to put
Scotland into other hands. A convention of estates had
been called the year before, to raise money for maintaining
the troops. This was a very ancient practice in the Scottish

a , thoiigh when I went and lived among [theni\ I found that what I had
heard was true, and a great deal more, struck out.

from the bar in 1674 for opposing attack upon Lauderdale, in 1678.
a rescript of Charles II declaring Lauderdale Papers, iii. 125 and infra,
the Scotch legal process of 'pro- f. 420.
testation in remeid of law ' illegal -1 Is that Scotch ? S.
(Omond, Lord Advocates of Scotland, 2 These three were Lauderdale's
i. 201, 209 and infra, f. 370) ; was principal agents. Clarendon had
member for Ayrshire in 1681, and now fallen, and Charles was attempt-
died, Nov. 17, 1684. He, with Lock- ing to enter upon a policy of toler-
hart, acted for the 'Faction' in their ance in England.

428 The History of the Reign

CHAP. X. constitution : a convention was summoned to meet within
twenty days : they could only levy money, and petition for
the redress of grievances, but could make no new laws, and
meddled only with that for which they were brought
together. In the former convention Sharp had presided,
being named by the earl of Rothes as the king's com-
missioner. In the winter [i6]66, or rather in the spring
Jan. 9, [i6]67, there was another convention called, in which the
king by a special letter appointed duke Hamilton to pre-
side. And the king in a letter to lord Rothes ordered him
to write to Sharp to stay within his diocese, and to come
no more to Edinburgh *. He upon this was struck with so
deep a melancholy, that he shewed as great an abjectness
under this slight disgrace, as he had shewed insolence
before when he had more favour. -The convention con-
tinued the assessment for another year at six thousand
pounds a month. Sharp, finding himself under ,a cloud,
studied to make himself popular, by looking after the
education of the marquis of Huntly, now the duke of
Gordon. He had an order long before from the king to
look to his education, that he might be bred a protestant ;
for the strength of popery within that kingdom lay in his
family ; but, though this was ordered during the earl of
Middleton's ministry, Sharp had not looked after it2. The
earl of Rothes's mistress was a papist, and nearly related
to the marquis of Huntly. So Sharp, either to make
his court the better, or at the lord Rothes's desire, had

1 This, his first public and official The whole matter, one of the most

rebuff, was a severe blow to Sharp, amusing episodes of the time, and

who had hoped for the place. The a most vivid illustration of Sharp's

Convention met on Jan. 9, 1667. knavery, is detailed in the Scottish

Sharp,as Rothes tells Lauderdale, was Review for July, 1884, 15-24. See

'strangely cast down, yeay, lower supra 380, note. Hamilton was at

than the dust.' Lauderdale Papers, this time very active in suppressing

i. 269, 270. On Jan. 16, through his discontent. Alexander Burnet to

brother William, he tried to make Sheldon, Oct. 24, 1667.

his peace ; but it was not until a 2 See Alexander Burnet to Shel-

year had passed that he was accepted don, Sept. 4, 1665. Sheldon MSS,
after the most grovelling submission.

of King Charles IL 429

neglected it these four years : but now he called for him. CHAP. X.
He was then about fifteen, well hardened in his prejudices
by the loss of so much time. What pains was taken on
him I know not ; but after a trial of some months Sharp
said, he saw he was not to be wrought on, and so sent him
back to his mother. So the interest that popery had in
Scotland was believed to be chiefly owing to Sharp's com-
pliance with the earl of Rothes's amours. The neglect of
his duty in so important a matter was much blamed : but 240
the not doing it upon such a motive was reckoned yet
more infamous. After the convention was over, lord Rothes
sent up Drummond to represent to the king the ill affection Jan. 12,
of the western parts T ; and, to touch the king in a sensible
point, he said the covenant stuck so deep in their hearts,
that no good could be done till that was rooted out. So he
proposed as an expedient, that the king would give the
council a power to require all whom they suspected to
renounce the covenant, and to proceed against such as
refused it as traitors. Drummond had yet too much of the
air of Russia about him, though not with Dalyel's fierce-
ness2 : he had a great measure of knowledge and learning,
and some true impressions of religion : but he was am-
bitious and covetous, and he thought, that upon such
a power granted, there would be great dealing in bribes
and confiscations. A slight accident happened, which
raised a jest that spoiled his errand. The king flung
the cover of the letter into the fire, which was carried up
all in a flame, and set the chimney on fire : upon which it
was said that the Scottish letter had fired Whitehall : but
it was answered, the cover had almost set Whitehall on fire,
but the contents of it would certainly set Scotland all in
a flame. It was said that the law for renouncing the
covenant inferring only a forfeiture of employments to
those who refused it, the stretching it so far as was now
proposed would be liable to great exception. Yet in

1 Alexander Burnet went with Papers, i. 271. Rothes was now en-
Drummond, who started before the gaged in obtaining Sharp's humilia-
Convention was over. Lauderdale tion. '2 Cf. supra 383, note.

43°

The History of the Reign

CHAP. X. compliance with a public message, the instruction was sent
down, as it was desired : but by a private letter lord Rothes
was ordered to make no use of it, except upon a special
command ; since the king had only given way to what was
desired, to strike terror in the ill affected. The secret of it
broke out : so it had no effect, but to make the lord Rothes
and his party more odious. Burnet, upon Sharp's disgrace,
grew to be more considered ; so he was sent up with a pro-
position of a very extraordinary nature, that the western
counties should be cantoned under a special government,
and peculiar taxes, together with the quartering of sol-
diers. It was said that those counties put the nation to
the charge of keeping up such a force, and therefore it
seemed reasonable that the charge should lie wholly on
them. He also proposed that a special council should be
appointed to sit at Glasgow : and, among other reasons to
enforce that motion, he said to the king, and afterwards
to lord Lauderdale, that some at the council board were

MS. 121. ill affected to the church, who favoured her enemies, | and
that traitors had been pleaded for at that board. Lord
Lauderdale writ this down presently to know what ground
there was for it ; since, if it was not true, he had Burnet at
241 mercy for leasing-making, which was more criminal when
the whole council was concerned in the lie that was made.
The only ground for this was, that one of the rebels,
excepted in the indemnity that was proclaimed some time
before, being taken, and it being evident that his brain was
turned, it was debated in council whether he should be
proceeded against or not : some argued against that, and
said it would be a reproach to the government to hang
a madman. This could in no sort justify such a charge :
so lord Lauderdale resolved to make use of it in due time.
The proposition itself was rejected, as that which the king
could not do by law. Burnet upon this went to the lord
Clarendon, and laid before him the sad estate of their
affairs in Scotland. He spoke to the king of it : and he
set the English bishops on the king, with whom Burnet

of King Charles II. 431

had more credit, as more entirely theirs, than ever Sharp CHAP. X,
had. The earl of Clarendon's credit was then declining :
and it was a clear sign of it when the king told lord
Lauderdale all that he had said to him on Scottish affairs ;
which provoked him extremely. Burnet was sent down
with good words : for the king was resolved to put the
affairs of Scotland under another management. Lord Kin-
cardine came down in April, and told me that Lord Rothes 1667.
was to be stript of all his places, and to be only lord
chancellor. The earl of Tweeddale and sir Robert Moray
were to have the secret in their hands x. He told me the
peace was as good as made : and when that was done,
the army would be disbanded, and things would be managed
with more temper both in church and state. This was then
so great a secret, that neither the lord Rothes nor the two
archbishops had the least hint of it. Some time after this,
lord Rothes went to visit his mistress, who was obliged to
live in the north ; upon which an accident happened that
hastened his fall. The Scots had during the war set out
many privateers, and these had brought in very rich prizes.
The Dutch, being provoked with this, sent Van Ghendt
with a good fleet into the Frith, to burn the coast, and to
recover such ships as were in port. He came into the
Frith on the first of May. If he had at first hung out
English colours, and attacked Leith harbour immediately,
which was then full of ships, he might have done what
mischief he pleased : for all were secure, and were looking
for sir Jeremy Smith with some frigates for the defence of
the coast, since the king set out no fleet this year2. There

1 All this is full}'- illustrated by the and in March, i66|. The Committee
Lauderdale Papers. See supra 374, of Miscarriages, however, let the
434, notes. matter drop, 'most men, almost all,

2 ' He is a gallant fellow, and we being satisfyed . . . that the charge
must allow him to bragg.' Nathaniel against him proceeded rather from
Hobart to Sir R. Verney, Nov. 16, animosity than any good ground.'
1665, Verney MSS. Other letters, Marvell, ii. 240, 244. He died in
however, cast a slur on his courage, November, 1675. Cal. St, P. Dom.
and Sir R. Holmes publicly accused 1666-7, 14, 15, 40, 222, 231, 236.
him of cowardice, on Oct. 25, 1666,

432

The History of the Reign

CHAP. X. had been such a dissipation of treasure, that, for all the
money that was given, there was not enough left to set out
a fleet x. But the court covered this by saying the peace
was as good as ended at Breda, where the lord Holies and
242 sir William Coventry2 were treating it as plenipotentiaries :
and, though no cessation was agreed on, yet they reckoned
on it as sure. Upon this a saying of the earl of Northum-
berland's was much repeated : when it was said that the
king's mistress was like to ruin the nation, he said it was
she that saved the nation ; while we had a house of
commons that gave all the money that was asked, it was
better to have the money squandered away in luxury and
prodigality, than to have it saved for worse purposes. Van
Ghendt did nothing in the Frith : for some hours he shot
against Bruntisland, without doing any mischief. The
country people run down to the coast, and made a great
show. But this was only a feint, to divert the king from
that which was chiefly intended : for he sailed out and
joined De Ruyter 3 : and so the fatal a attack was made
upon the river of Medway : the chain at the mouth of it,
which was then all its security, was broke : and the Dutch
fleet sailed up to Chatham : of which I will say no more
in this place, but go on with the affairs of Scotland.

Lord Rothes his being out of the way when the country

a substituted for shameful.

1 A supply of £1,800,000 was
given at the end of September, in
addition to the two former grants of
two and a half and one and a quarter
millions respectively. See supra
400, note 2.

2 This should be Henry Coventry,
younger brother of William. He
was afterwards Secretary of State.
Cf. infra 548, and Pepys, No-
vember 16, 1667. Upon this mis-
sion of Coventry and Holies, see
Marvell, Last Instructions, 368,
461 : —

' While chain'd together, two em-

bassadors
Like slaves shall beg for peace at

Holland's doors : . . .
But Harry's order'd, if they won't

recall . . .
Their fleet, to threaten — we'll give

them all/ . . .

Pepys, Feb. 14, i66f, mentions the
popular opinion that it was ' a mean
thing.'

3 Van Ghendt had the command
of the squadron which sailed up the
Medway.

of King Charles II. 433

was in such danger was severely aggravated by the lord CHAP. X.
Lauderdale, and did bring on the change somewhat the
sooner. In June Moray came down with a letter from the
king, superseding lord Rothes's commission, putting the
treasury in commission, and making lord Rothes lord
chancellor. He excused himself from being raised to that
post all he could, and so desired to continue lord treasurer :
but he struggled in vain, and was forced to submit at last *.
Now all was turned to a more sober and more moderate
management. Even Sharp grew meek and humble : and
said to my self, it was a great happiness to have to deal
with sober and serious men, for lord Rothes and his crew
were perpetually drunk. When the peace of Breda was
concluded, the king wrote to the Scottish council, and
communicated that to them ; and with that signified it was
his pleasure that the army should be disbanded. The earl
of Rothes, Burnet, and all the officers, opposed this much.
The rebellious disposition of the western counties was
much aggravated : it seemed necessary to govern them by
a military power. Several expedients were proposed on
the other hand. Instead of renouncing the covenant, in
which they pretended there were many points of religion
concerned, a bond was proposed for keeping the peace, and
against rising in arms 2. This seemed the better test; since
it secured the public quiet and the peace of the country,
which was at present the most necessary : the religious
part was to be left to time and good management. So an 243
indemnity of a more comprehensive nature was proclaimed:

1 See Robert Moray's amusing unanimously, and the forces . . . are
account of this. Lauderdale Papers, marched to their several garrisons,
ii. 3. Rothes was not called upon to so that all is in great quiet every
resign the Commissionership until where, blest be God.' Portland MSB.
Sept. 24. The appointment to the iii., H. M. C. Rep. xiv. App. ii. 305.
Chancellorship was polite dismissal See the Council's proposals, Sept.
from power. Cf. supra 375. 13, in the Lauderdale Papers, ii. 52,

2 This was Robert Moray's sug- and the meeting of the bishops,
gestion. In a subsequent private with very different views, Sept. 23,
letter he says : l The bonds . . . have id. 60.

been signed very cheerfully and
VOL. I. F f

434 The History of the Reign

CHAP. X. and the bond was all the security that was demanded.
Many came into the bond : though there were some among
them that pretended scruples, for it was said, peace was
a word of a large extent : it might be pretended that
obeying all the laws was implied in it. Yet the far
greater number submitted to this. Those who were
disturbed with scruples were a few melancholy incon-
siderable persons.

In order to the disbanding the army with the more

M3. 122. security, it was proposed that a county militia | should be
raised, and trained for securing the public peace. The
archbishops did not like this: they said, the commons, of
whom the militia must be composed, being generally ill
affected to the church, this would be a prejudice rather
than a security 1. But to content them, it was concluded
that in counties that were ill affected there should be no
foot raised, and only some troops of horse. Burnet com-
plained openly, that he saw episcopacy was to be pulled
down, and that in such an extremity he could not look on
and be silent. He writ upon these matters a long and
sorrowful letter to Sheldon, who upon that wrote a very
long one to Sir R. Moray, which I read, and found more
temper and moderation in it than I could have expected
from him. Moray had got so far into his confidence, and
he seemed to depend so entirely on his sincerity, that no
informations against him could work upon Sheldon2. Upon
Burnet's carrying things so high, Sharp was better used,
and was brought again to the council board, where he
began to talk of moderation : and in the debate con-
cerning the disbanding the army, he said it was better to
expose the bishops to whatsoever might happen, than to

1 Tweeddale reported that Sharp glozing letter from Sir Robert to the
and the bishops were willing, but archbishop, in which, although he
not Burnet. begins with owning his obligation

2 Whether Moray returned the ' to give his grace the scene in which
confidence of Sheldon may be he is engaged,' yet he so contrives,
doubted ; for there is extant among as to inform him of nothing. It is
the Sheldon MSS. ^Bodl.) along dated Oct. 17 in this year. R.

of King Charles II. 435

have the kingdom governed for their sakes by a military CHAP. X.
power. Yet in private he studied to possess all people
with prejudices against the persons then employed, as the
enemies of the church1. At that time lord Lauderdale
got the king to write to the privy council, letting them
know that he had been informed traitors had been pleaded
for at that board. This was levelled at Burnet. The
council, in their answer, as they denied the imputation, so
they desired to know who it was that had so aspersed
them. Burnet, when the letter was offered to him to be
signed by him, said he could not say traitors had never
been pleaded for at that board, since he himself had once
pleaded for one, and put them in mind of the particular
case. After this, he saw how much he had exposed him-
self, and grew tamer. The army was disbanded : so lord
Rothes's authority as general, as well as his commission,
was now at an end, after it had lasted three years. The
pretence of his commission was the preparing matters for
a national synod : yet in all that time there was not one 244
step made towards one : for the bishops seemed concerned
only for their authority and their revenues, and took no
care of regulating either worship or discipline. The earls
of Rothes and Tweeddale went to court. The former tried
what he could do by the duke of Monmouth's means, who
had married his niece 2 : but he was then young, and was
engaged in a mad ramble after pleasure, and minded no
business. So he saw the necessity of applying himself to
lord Lauderdale : and he did dissemble his discontent so
dexterously, that he seemed well pleased to be freed from
the load of business that lay so heavy upon him. He
moved to have his accounts of the treasury passed, to

1 Still, in a confidential letter to ment in the church, and as dissatisfied

Archbishop Sheldon, dated Nov. 2. with the way ot our opposers, as any

in this year, Sharp speaks in the person intrusted by the king for his

following manner of Sir Robert service in Scotland.' R. Sharp was

Moray: 'I am converted to the per- at this time, it must be remembered,

suasion, that if I be not deceived, the humble servant of Lauderdale.
he is as right for episcopal govern- 2 Anne Scott. See supra 373.

Ff 2

436

The History of the Reign

CHAP. x. which great exceptions might have been made ; and to
have an approbation passed under the great seal of all he
had done while he was the king's commissioner. Lord
Tweeddale was against both and moved that he should be
for some time kept under the lash : he knew that, how
humble soever he was at that time, he would be no sooner
secured from being called to an account for what was
passed, than he would set up a cabal in opposition to every
thing ; whereas they were sure of his good behaviour, as
long as he continued so obnoxious. The king loved lord
Rothes : so the earl of Lauderdale consented to all he
asked. But they quickly saw good cause to repent of
their forwardness.

At this time a great change happened in the course of
the earl of Lauderdale's life, which made the latter part
of it very different from what the former had been.
Mr. Murray 1 of the bedchamber had been page and whip-
ping-boy to king Charles I, and had great credit with
him, not only in procuring private favours but in all his
counsels. He was well turned for a court, very insinuating,
but very false ; and of so revengeful a temper that rather
than any of the counsels given by his enemies should
succeed, he would have revealed and betrayed both the
king and them. It was generally believed that he dis-
covered the most important of all his secrets to his
enemies 2. He had one particular quality, that when he

1 William Murray, son of the Rev.
William Murray, minister of Dysart,
Co. Fife, and nephew of Thomas
Murray, tutor to Charles I. He was
created Lord Huntingtower and Earl
of Dysart, with succession to his
heirs, male or female, Aug. 3, 1643.
His family was descended from the
Murrays of Ochtertyre, a branch of
the Tullibardine line. He married
Catherine Bruce, of the house of
Clackmannan, leaving two daughters,
Elizabeth and Margaret.

2 That he was an agent of the

Scottish Covenanters to persuade
King Charles I to comply with
their demands in the year 1646,
appears from Baillie's Letters, ii.
225. Particular instances of his
treachery may be seen in Bishop
Guthrie's Memoirs, 101. But the
nefarious contrivance by which he
deprived his royal master of the
town of Hull, and Sir John Hotham,
the governor, eventually of his life,
is mentioned in Carte's Hist, of
England, iv. 428. [Clarendon, iv.
154, states that 'it was generally

of King Charles II. 437

was drunk, which was very often, he was upon a most CHAP. x.
exact reserve, though he was pretty open at all other
times. He got a warrant to be an earl, which was signed
at Newcastle, yet he got the king to antedate it, as if it
had been signed at Oxford, to get the precedence of some
whom he hated : but he did not pass it under the great
seal during the king's life, but did it after his death,
though his warrant not being passed, it died with the king.
His eldest daughter, to whom his honour, such as it was,
descended, married sir Lionel Tollemasche of Suffolk \ a
man of a noble family. After her father's death, she took 245
the title of countess of Dysart. She was a woman of great
beauty, but of far greater parts. She had a wonderful
quickness of apprehension, and an amazing vivacity in
conversation. She had studied not only divinity and
history, but mathematics and philosophy. She was violent
in every thing she set about, a violent friend, but a much
more violent enemy. She had a restless ambition, lived
at a vast expense, and was ravenously covetous ; and
would have stuck at nothing by which she might compass
her ends 2. She had blemishes of another kind, which she

believed that the king's purpose of Spottiswood's Hist, of the Church of

going to the House (for the five Scotland under the year 1596. Thus

members) was communicated with too his son, of whom we first spoke,

William Murray of the bed-chamber, was accustomed to have his letters

with whom the Lord Digby had copied, whilst he was asleep, and

great friendship, and that it was sent to his enemies by his unfaithful

betrayed by him.' See Id. iv. 20, servants, of whom this Murray was

222; v. 91, note.] It was the fate one. See Evelyn's Memoirs, i. 253.

of the house of Stuart to be served R. Compare supra 106.
by unfaithful attendants on their L Sir Lionel Tollemasche of Hel-

persons. Thus, in the year 1596, mingham Hall, Suffolk, who married

James I was in the greatest personal Elizabeth Murray, as she then was,

danger from an insurrection at Edin- and who had by her three sons and

burgh, which originated in the in- two daughters, traced his pedigree

fidelity of his servants. Being dis- to Saxon times. He died in 1668.

gusted at some new regulations in Burke's Peerage. See ' Dialogue be-

the royal household, they informed tween Lauderdale and Sir Lionel

the people, that the king their master Talmarsh ' in Maidment's Scottish

was about to turn Papist. See a Pasquils, 248.

tract entitled Presbytery Displayed, '2 The confirmation of her title is

47-49 ; and compare Archbishop dated Dec. 5, 1670. She married

438 The History of the Reign

CHAP. X. seemed to despise, and to take little care of the decencies
of her sex. She had been early in a correspondence
with lord Lauderdale, that had given occasion to censure.
When he was a prisoner after Worcester fight, she made
him believe he was in great danger of his life, and that
she saved it by her intrigues with Cromwell : which was
not a little taken notice of. Cromwell was certainly fond
of her, and she took care to entertain him in it, till he,
finding what was said upon it, broke it off1. Upon the
king's restoration, she thought that lord Lauderdale made
not those returns that she expected ; so they lived for
some years at a distance. But upon her husband's death
she made up all quarrels : so that lord Lauderdale and

MS. 123. she I lived so much together, that his lady was offended
at it, and went to Paris, where she died about three years
after 2. The lady Dysart came to have so absolute a power
over the lord Lauderdale, that it lessened him much in
the esteem of all the world ; for he delivered himself up
to all her humours and passions. All applications were
made to her : she took upon her to determine every thing.
She sold all places, and was wanting in no methods that
could bring her money, which she lavished out in a most
profuse vanity. As the conceit took her, she made him
fall out with all his friends, one after another : with the
earls of Argyll, Tweeddale, and Kincardine, with duke
Hamilton, the marquis of Athol, and sir Robert Moray,
who all had their turns in her displeasure, which very
quickly drew lord Lauderdale's after it. If after such
names it is not a presumption to name my self, I had my
share likewise. So that from this time to the end of his
days he became quite another sort of man than he had

Lauderdale, Feb. 17, 167^, infra 550; l Reresby says the same in his

and died without further issue on Memoirs (Cartwright), 116.

Aug. 24, 1697. Burke's Peerage. 2 Lauderdale's first wife was Anne

Burnet's account of her, compared Hume, daughter of Alexander, first

with other evidence, is not over- Earl of Hume. Almost her last

drawn. For the laudatory verses to letter to her husband is dated from

her, ascribed to him, see infra 601, Paris, Sept. 22, 1670 (?). Lander*

note. dale Papers, ii. 203.

of King Charles II. 439

been in all the former parts of his life. Sir Robert Moray CHAP x.
had been designed by her father to be her husband, and
was long her true friend. She knew his integrity was
proof to all attempts. He had been hitherto the lord
Lauderdale's chief friend and main support. He had great
esteem paid him, both by the king and by the whole
court : and he employed it all for the earl of Lauderdale's
service. He used great freedom with him at proper times ;
and was a faithful adviser, and reprover as much as the
other could bear it. Lady Dysart laid hold on his absence 246
in Scotland to make a breach between them. She made
lord Lauderdale believe that Moray assumed the praise
of all that was done to himself, and was not ill pleased to
pass as his governor. Lord Lauderdale's pride was soon
fired with those ill impressions \

The government of Scotland had now another face.
All payments were regularly made : there was an overplus
of lo.ooo/. of the revenue saved every year : a magazine of
arms was bought with it : and there were several projects
set on foot for the encouragement of trade and manu-
factures. Lord Tweeddale and sir Robert Moray were so
entirely united, that, as they never disagreed, so all plied
before them. Lord Tweeddale was made a privy coun-
cillor in England : and his son having married the earl of
Lauderdale's only child 2, they seemed to be inseparably
united. When he came down from London, he brought
a letter from the king to the council, recommending the
concerns of the church to their care : in particular, he
charged them to suppress conventicles, which began to
spread generally through the western counties : for upon
the disbanding the army, the country, being delivered from
that terror, did now forsake their churches, and got their
old ministers to come among them ; and they were not

1 The final breach with Moray did of Jan. 19, 1671, in the Lauderdale

not occur until between August, 1670 Papers, ii. 211.

and January, 1671. See infra 442. 2 Lord Yester married Anne Mait-

There is a dignified letter of partial land in 1666.
and formal reconciliation from Moray

440

The History of the Reign

CHAP. X. wanting in holding conventicles from place to place. The
king wrote also by him a letter to Sharp with his own
pen, in which he assured him of his zeal for the church,
and of his favour to himself1. Lord Tweeddale hoped
this would have gained him to his side : but he was
deceived in it, for Sharp quickly returned to his former
insolence. Upon the earl of Tweeddale's return, there was
a great application to public business : no vice was in
reputation : justice was impartially administered : and a
commission was sent to the western counties to examine
into all the complaints of unjust and illegal oppressions
by Turner2, Dalyel3, and others. Turner's warrants for
his proceedings had been seized with himself; and though
upon the defeat given the whigs he was left by them, so
that, beyond all men's expectations, he escaped out of
their hands, yet he had nothing to justify himself by.
The truth is, this inquiry was chiefly levelled at lord
Rothes and Burnet, to cast the odium of the late rebellion
on their injustice and ill conduct. And it was intended
that Turner should accuse them : but he had no vouchers
to shew. These were believed to be withdrawn by an
artifice of the lord Rothes. But, before the matter was
quite ended, those in whose hands his papers were left,
sent them sealed up to his lodgings ; yet he was by that
time broken : so, since the government had used him
hardly, he, who was a man of spirit, would not shew his

1 See supra 380 for Sharp's recep-
tion of the letter. Sharp made many
attempts, but they were short-lived
and abortive, to assert himself. It
was the peculiar pleasure of Lauder-
dale, Tweeddale, Kincardine, and
Robert Moray, to keep him in his
place. Scottish Revieiv, J uly , 1884, 24.

2 See supra 378, 418. Turner was
merely obliged to surrender his
commissions. Wodrow, ii. 101 ;
Lauderdale Papers, 23,128, ff. 314,
321-324 ; 23,129, f. 17. He admitted
exactions to the amount of £30,000

Scots ; but in ' Napthali' was charged
with £17,000 sterling.

3 Archbishop Burnet, in a letter
to Sheldon dated Aug. 9, 1667, says
of General Dalyel, that however
they may represent him to his grace,
or the king, he is the only person
he ever saw fit to curb the insolencies
of that surly party ; and that if his
counsel had been followed, he him-
self is confident, that the kingdom
had by this time been in a very
happy and quiet condition. R. See
this counsel, supra 425, note.

of King Charles II. 441

vouchers nor expose his friends. So that matter was CHAP. X.
carried no further. And the people of the country cried 24^
out against those censures. It was said that when by such
violent proceedings men had been inflamed to a rebellion,
upon which so much blood was shed, all the reparation
given was that an officer or two were broken ; and a great
man was taken down a little upon it, without making any
public examples for the deterring others. Sir Robert
Moray went through the west of Scotland ; but when he
came back, he told me the clergy were such a set of men,
so ignorant and so scandalous, that it was not possible
to support them, unless the greatest part of them could
be turned out, and better men found to put in their places.
But it was not easy to know how this could be done.
Burnet had placed them all : and he thought himself in
some sort bound to protect them. The clergy were so
linked together, that none of them could be got to concur
in getting proofs of crimes brought against their brethren.
And the people of the country pretended scruples. They
said, to accuse a minister before a bishop was an acknow-
ledging his jurisdiction over his clergy, or, to use a hard
word much in use among them, it was a homologating his
power. So Moray proposed that a court should be con-
stituted, by a special commission from the king, made up
of some of the laity as well as the clergy, to try the truth
of these scandalous reports that went upon the clergy :
and he writ about it to Sheldon, who approved of it J.
Sharp also seemed well pleased with it, though he abhorred
it in his heart : for he thought it struck at the root of
their authority, and was Erastianism in the highest degree.
Burnet said it was a turning him out of his bishopric, and
the declaring him either incapable of judging his clergy.
or unworthy of that trust. His clergy cried out upon it,
and said | it was a delivering them up to the rage of their MS. 124.
enemies, who hated them only for the sake of their
functions and for their obedience to the laws ; and that

1 See Argyll's letter of Dec. 12, 1667 ^Bannatyne Club).

442 The History of the Reign

CHAP. x. if irregular methods were taken to encourage them, they
would get any thing, true or false, to be sworn against
them. The difficulties that arose upon this put a stop
to it. And the earl of Lauderdale's aversion to sir Robert
Moray began a disjointing of all the councils of Scotland.
Lord Tweeddale had the chief confidence, and next him
lord Kincardine was most trusted. The presbyterians,
seeing a softening in the execution of the law, and observing
that the archbishops were jealous of lord Tweeddale,
fancied he was theirs in his heart: upon that they grew
very insolent. The clergy was in many places ill used by
them J. They despaired of any farther protection from
the government. They saw designs were forming to turn
248 them out : and, hearing that they might be better pro-
vided for in Ireland, they were in many places bought
out, and prevailed on to desert their cures 2. The people
of the country hoped that upon their leaving them they
might have their old ministers again, and upon that were
willing enough to enter into those bargains with them :
and so in a very little time there were many vacancies
made all over those counties. The lord Tweeddale took

1 Salmon, in his Examination, vol. afraid,' he proceeds to say, 'greater

i. 586, produces a passage from upon design ; and I am sure, if those

the bishop's Four Conferences, pub- who command the militia vindicate

lished in 1673, in which, after par- not themselves to his majesty's

ticularizing the cruel usage the con- satisfaction, I shall not plead for

forming clergy met with from these them. Our ministers who are loyal,

people, the author says, ' Believe and own the present government,

me, these barbarous outrages have will be forced, for what I see, to

been such, that worse could not have desert their stations ; several of them

been apprehended from heathens. have been robbed, and sore beaten,

. . . From these things I may well and some wounded. The counsel is

assume, that the persecution lies now considering what will be the

mainly on the conformists' side, who, best and most effectual remedy

for their obedience to the laws, lie against the anger and fury of those

thus open to the fury of their merciless rebels, who, in the army's

enemies;' 290. His namesake, Arch- absence from the west, range up

bishop Burnet, in a letter without and down the country in small

date to the Archbishop of Canter- parties.' R.

bury, informs him, that the clamours 2 So Ireland was well provided. S.

against the soldiers are great, ' but I am

of King Charles II. 443

great pains to engage Leighton into the same counsels CHAP. x.
with him. He had magnified him highly to the king, as
the much greatest man of the Scottish clergy ; and the
lord Tweeddale's chief aim with relation to church matters
was to set him at the head of them : for he often said to
me, that more than two parts in three of the whole business
of the government related to the church. So he studied
to bring in a set of episcopal men of another stamp, and
to set Leighton at their head. He studied to draw in
Mr. Charteris, but he had such sad thoughts of mankind,
and such humble ones of himself, that he thought little
good could be done, and that, as to that little, he was not
a proper instrument. Leighton was prevailed on to go
to London, where, as he told me, he had two full audiences
of the king. He laid before him the madness of the
former administration of church affairs, and the necessity
of turning to more moderate counsels : in particular, he
proposed a comprehension of the presbyterian party, by
altering the terms of the laws a little, and by such abate-
ments as might preserve the whole for the future, by
granting somewhat for the present x. But he entered into
no expedients : only he studied to fix the king in the
design that the course of his affairs led him to, though
contrary to his own inclinations, both in England and
Scotland 2. In order to the opening this, I must change
the scene.

1 See Alexander Burnet to Sheldon, in their wisdome they propose as an

Aug. 9, 1667. ' It is thought some of expedient to reconcile the presby-

our great persons designe Dumblane terian and episcopal church.' Lau-

for his successour [in the bishopric derdale Papers, ii. App. A, Letter

of Edinburgh] ; and if they have the xxxii. On Charteris, see supra

confidence to offer al this they will 385.

give us just reason to suspect that it 2 Burnet intimates that Charles

is not without their privity and con- was opposed to toleration. But he

sent that our ejected and dissatisfied was always trying for indulgence

ministers pleade everywhere that whenever parliament was not sitting

they are not against Bishops, but and it was safe to do so.
allow episcopos presides . . . and this

CHAP. XI.

444 The History of the Reign

CHAPTER XL

THE FALL OF CLARENDON.

THE Dutch war had turned so fatally on the king, that
it made it necessary for him to try how to recover the
affections and esteem of his people. He found a slackening
the execution of the law went a great way in the city of
London, and with the trading part of the nation. The
house of commons continued still in their fierceness, and
aversion to all moderate propositions ; but in the intervals
of parliament the execution was softened. The earl of
Clarendon found his credit was declining, that all the
secrets of state were trusted to Bennet, and that he had
no other share in them than his post required *. The lady
Castlemaine set herself most violently against him 2 ; and
the duke of Buckingham 3, as oft as he was admitted to

1 The former attempts to dislodge
Clarendon had failed, for reasons
probably well summed up by Charles
Lyttleton in 1664: 'Yet undoubtedly
he still retaines the primier ministre's
place, and has the greatest manage of
affaires in his hands ; and I cannot
tell well how it should be otherwise,
for they that seeme to rival him in
it are, in my opinion, too much the
companions of [the king's] pleasure
to be at leisure to drudge in ye
matters of State.' Hatton Corr.
(Camd. Soc.), i. 35. See also Pepys,
as early as July 27, 1661 ; and id,
Dec. 15, 1664.

2 Clarendon had refused to pass
Lady Castlemaine's patents of no-
bility, which had consequently to be
passed under the Irish seal, had for-
bidden his wife to visit her, and had
consistently refused her the official
and social recognition which she de-
sired. Cf. supra 309. ' This business
of my Lord Chancellor's was cer-
tainly designed in my Lady Castle-

maine's chamber ; when he went
from the king on Monday morning
she was in bed '^though about twelve
o'clock) and ran out in her smock
into her aviary ; and thither her
woman brought her her nightgown ;
and stood blessing herself at the old
man's going away.' Pepys, Aug. 27,
1667, speaking from hearsay, and
Sept. 8.

3 In February, i66f, however,
Buckingham was in disgrace, with
the loss of all his employments,
owing to offence given by too great
leniency to Nonconformists in his
capacity of Lord-Lieutenant of the
West Riding (Col. St. P. Dom.
1666-7, 532, 552, 560), and a pro-
clamation was out for his arrest.
Reresby, 71. But his restoration to
favour followed almost immediately.
Cal. St. P. Dom. 1667, 246. Marvell,
in Last Instructions, 356, makes the
cause of his disgrace more personal
to Clarendon.

of King Charles II.

445

any familiarities with the king, studied with all his wit and CHAP. XI
humour to make lord Clarendon and all his counsels
appear ridiculous1, and lively jests were at all times apt 249
to take with the king. The earl of Clarendon fell under
two other misfortunes before the war broke out. The king
had granted him a large piece of ground near St. James's
to build a house on. He intended a good ordinary house,
but, not understanding those matters himself, he put the
managing of that into the hands of others, who run him
into a vast charge of about 5o,ooo/, three times as much
as he had designed to lay out upon it2. During the war,
and in the plague year, he had about three hundred men
at work, which he thought would have been an acceptable
thing, when so many men were kept at work, and so much
money, as was duly paid, did circulate about. But it had
a contrary effect : it raised a great outcry against him 3.

1 Pepys was informed, on good
authority, 'that the duke of Buck-
ingham did by his friends treat with
my lord chancellor by the mediation
of Matt. Wren and Clifford, to fall
in with my lord chancellor, which
he (Gibson^ tells me, he did advise
my lord chancellor to accept of, as
that, that with his own interest and
the duke of York's, would undoubt-
edly have secured all to him and his
family ; but that my lord chancellor
was a man not to be advised, think-
ing himself too high to be counselled ;
and so all is come to nothing ; for
by that means the duke of Bucking-
ham became desperate, and was
forced to fall in with Arlington to
his ruin.' R.

2 His son, the Earl of Rochester,
told me, when he left England, he
ordered him to tell all his friends,
that if they could excuse the vanity
and folly of the great house, he
\vould undertake to answer for all
the rest of his actions himself. D.
See Clarendon, Cont. ii. 587, and

infra 258.

3 ' Some rude people . . . have cut
down the trees before the house,
and broke his windows ; and a gibbet
either set up before or painted upon
his gate, and these three words writ,
11 Three sights to be seen, Dunkirk,
Tangier, and a barren queene." '
Pepys, June 14, 1667. Upon the last
charge here implied, see id. Feb. 22,
i66|. Clarendon House was in St.
James's Street. It was sold to the
young Duke of Albemarle for £25,000,
and pulled down to make room for
new buildings in 1683. Evelyn,
June 19, Sept. 18, 1683 ; Clarendon,
Cont. 1358 ; Marvell, i. 384. See
also ' News from Dunkirk House/
Sowers Tracts, viii. Marvell in Last
Instructions, 355, says of Clarendon :

1 See how he reigns in his new
palace culminant,

And sits in state divine like Jove

the fulminant ; '

and Poems on State Affairs, i. 253.
See also Marvell's poem, ' Claren-
don's House Warming.' Evelyn, in

446

The History of the Reign

CHAP. XI. Some called it Dunkirk house, intimating that it was out
of his share of the price of Dunkirk. Others called it Hol-
land house, because he was believed to be no friend to the
war : so it was given out that he had the money from the
Dutch. It was visible that in a time of public calamity he
was building a very noble palace. Another accident was,
that before the war there were some designs on foot for the
repairing of St. Paul's, and many stones were brought
thither. That project was laid aside during the war. He
upon that bought the stones, and made use of them in
building his own house. This, how slight soever it may
seem to be, yet had a great effect by the management of
his enemies. His other misfortune was, that he lost his
chief friend, to whom he trusted most, and who was his
greatest support, the earl of Southampton. The pain of
the stone grew upon him to such a degree, that he had
resolved to be cut : but a woman came to him who pre-
tended she had an infallible secret for dissolving the stone,
and brought such vouchers to him that he put himself into
her hands. The medicine had a great operation, though
it ended fatally : for he passed great quantities of gravel,
that looked like the coats of a stone sliced off. This en-
couraged him to go on, till his pains increased so that no
man was ever seen die in such torment ; which made him
oft tremble all over, so that the bed shook with it ; yet he
bore it with an astonishing patience. He not only kept
himself from saying any indecent thing, but endured all
that misery with the firmness of a great man and the
submission of a good Christian. The cause of all appeared
when he was opened after his death : for the medicine had
stripped the stone of its outward slimy coats, which made
MS. 125. it lie soft and easy | upon the muscles of the bladder ;
whereas when these were dissolved, the inner and harder
parts of the stone, that were all ragged by the dissolution

a letter to Lord Cornbury, Jan. 20,
1665, speaks of Clarendon House as
'without hyperbole, the best con-

trived, the most useful, graceful, and
magnificent house in England ; I
except not Audley End.'

of King Charles II.

447

that was begun, as the stone fell down, lay upon the neck CHAP. XI.

of the bladder, which raised those violent pains of which 250

he died. The court was now delivered of a great man,

whom they did not much love, and who they knew did

not love them. The treasury was put in commission : and

the earl of Clarendon had no interest there. He saw the

war, though managed by other counsels, yet was like to

end in his ruin: for all errors were cast on him. The

business of Chatham was a terrible blow : and though the

loss was great, the infamy was greater. The parliament

had given above five millions towards the war : but, through

the luxury and waste of the court, this money was so

squandered away, that the king could neither set out a fleet

nor defend his coast1. Upon the news of the Dutch fleet's June 9-13,

being in the river, the king did not ride down himself, nor l667<

appear at the head of his people, who were then in such

imminent danger. He only sent the duke of Albemarle

1 On the ground that peace was
practically certain, the greater number
of first and second rates had. against
the advice of James (Clarke, Life of
James II, i. 425), been laid up, to
save expense. Marvell, Last In-
structions, 317-324. Evelyn states,
July 29, 1667. that William Coventry,
then one of the Treasury Commis-
sioners, was responsible for this
fatal step ; and Pepys, April i, 1667,
notes Coventry's assertion of the
impossibility of setting out a fleet.
On April 4, Pepys ' made Sir G.
Carteret merry with telling him how
many land admirals we are to have
this year ; Allen at Plymouth,
Holmes at Portsmouth, Spragge for
Medway, Tiddiman at Dover, Smith
to the northward, and Harman to
the southward.' The helplessness
of the country was fully realized :
' the enemy can come and cut our
throats when he likes.' Sir R.
Burgoyne to Sir R. Verney, Vtrney
MSS., June 17, 1667 ; and the pre-

valent fear of a French invasion is
depicted in the H. M. C. Rep. xiv.
App. iv. 79. An attack upon Dart-
mouth in July was beaten off. The
City ordered the enlistment of all
men between 16 and 60 ; and it is
stated that the Quakers themselves
sent the king an offer of 6,000 men.
H. M. C. Rep. xii. App. vii. June 18,
1667. How the money went which
was thus saved may be gathered
from one instance ; see the note by
Brouncker that the privy seal for
payment of £9,750 for a great pair
of diamond pendants, and £1,200
for a pair of pearl pendants, must
be payable into the privy purse.
Cal. St. P. Dom. 1668-9, 136. Upon
the Chatham disgrace, the subsequent
panic, and the numerous naval en-
gagements which followed, see id.
1667, Preface xvii-xxxix and passim.
See also the list of Dutch engravings
illustrative of the more important
events of the war, id. 422.

448

The History of the Reign

CHAP. XI. down, and was intending to retire to Windsor, but that
looked so like a. flying from danger, that he was prevailed
on to stay. And it was given out that he was very
cheerful that night at supper with his mistress1, which
drew many libels upon him, that were writ with as much
wit as malice, and brought him under a general contempt.
He was compared to Nero, who sung while Rome was
burning*. A day or two after that, he rode through
London, accompanied with the most popular men of his
court, and assured the citizens he would live and die with
his people, upon which there were some acclamations, but
the matter went heavily. The city was yet in ashes, and
the jealousy of burning it on design had got so among
them that the king himself was not free from suspicion ~.
If the Dutch had pursued their advantage in the first
consternation, they might have done more mischief, and
have come a great way up the Thames, and burnt many
merchant ships : but they thought they had done enough,
and so they sailed away.

The court was at a stand what to do : for the French
assured them the treaty was as good as finished. Whether
the French set this on, as that which would both weaken
the fleet of England, and alienate the king so entirely from
the Dutch that he would be easily engaged into new
alliances to revenge this affront, as many believe, I cannot

* , and was made look worse than Sardanapalus. struck out.

1 Pepys, June 21, 1667: 'All
merry a hunting a poor moth.' The
party was at the Duchess of Mon-
mouth's.

2 The House of Commons resolved,
'•That the thanks -of that house should
be given his majesty for his great care
and endeavour to prevent the burning
of the city of London.' Salmon, i.
602. It is observable, that Gates
makes use of the known fact of the
king's activity in preventing the pro-
gress of the fire ; for when, according
to Burnet's account below, he ac-

cused the Papists of an intention to
kill the king during the conflagration,
he said that they relented upon
seeing him so active in quenching
it. See f. 427. l It is not indeed
imaginable,' writes Evelyn, Sept. 6,
1666, 'how extraordinary the vigil-
ance and activity of the king and
duke was, even labouring in person,
and being present to command, order,
reward, or encourage workmen, by
which he shewed his affection to his
people and gained theirs.' R.

of King Charles II. 449

pretend to determine. The earl of Essex was at that time CHAP. XI.
in Paris, on his way home from the waters of Bourbon :
and he told me the queen-mother of England sent for him,
as being one of her son's privy council, and told him the
Irish had sent over some to the court of France, desiring
money and arms with some officers, and they undertook to
put that island into the hands of the French *. He told
me, he found the queen was in her inclinations and advices
true to her son's interest : but he was amused to see,, that
a woman who in a drawing-room was the liveliest woman
of the age, and had a vivacity of imagination that surprised
all who came near her, yet after all her practice in affairs,
had so little either of judgment or conduct that he did not
wonder at the miscarriage of all the late king's counsels,
since she had such a share in them. But the French had 251
then greater things in view. The king of Spain was dead. 1665.
And now, after they had managed the war so that they
had been at no part of the expense of it, nor brought a ship
to the assistance of the Dutch, and that both England and
Holland had made great losses both in ships and treasure,
they resolved to manage the treaty so, as to oblige the king

1 During the late war with the twenty or thirty horse, to the great

Dutch, Boyle, Archbishop of Dublin terror of the people ; which affrights

and Chancellor of Ireland, draws the them out of the country to shelter

following picture of the state of themselves in towns ; wherein they

affairs in that kingdom : ' The con- will not be able to continue long for

dition of this kingdom is at present want of means to support their

very unpleasant. We receive daily families and themselves, and they

rumours of intendment in the Irish must necessarily return again to

to raise another rebellion : I confess England, to the discouragement of

I am no farther alarmed at this, than all persons in this country ; and

to collect the discontents and dis- though my lord lieutenant doth very

satisfactions of the people from industriously appear in the prose-

these reports, for I know they are cution of such villainies, yet the

no way able to do any thing con- want of money for the army is so

siderable upon that account. That great, that he is not able to cause

which indeed gives us greater dis- them to march upon any design,

turbance is, that great robbery and lest he should increase their discon-

plundering of houses made by them tents, which for want of pay are

in several places of this kingdom, grown so high already.' Sheldon

which they commit in parties of MSS. R.

VOL. I. G g

450

The History of the Reign

CHAP. XI. by giving him a peace, when he was in no condition to carry
on the war1. I enter not into our negotiation with the bishop
of Munster 2, nor his treacherous departing from his engage-
ments, since I know nothing of that matter, but what is in print.
As soon as the peace was made, the king saw with what
disadvantage he was like to meet his parliament. So he
thought the disgracing a public minister, who, by being
long in so high a post had drawn upon himself much envy
and many enemies, would cover himself and the rest of his
court 3. Other things concurred to set this forward. The
king was grown very weary of the queen : and it was

3,
1667.

1 The Peace of Breda, July 3,
1667 thus extorted by De Witt, was
viewed with the utmost humiliation
in England ; Pepys, July 29, 1667 ;
Lindsey MSS., H. M. C, Rep. xiv;
App. ix. 368. It was the more
creditable to the Dutch since their
condition at the end of 1665 is thus
described by Temple, Works, i.
236: 'For the Hollanders, they
were certainly never worse at
their ease than now, being braved
and beaten both at sea and land ;
flayed with taxes, distracted with
factions, and their last resource,
which is the protection of France,
poisoned with extreme jealousies ;
yet that must be their game, or else
a perfect truckling peace with Eng-
land.' By this peace England ob-
tained New Amsterdam, translated
into New York, the Dutch retaining
Surinam. For another important
article, afterwards shamefully broken
by Charles, see infra 551, and Pon-
talis, Jean de Witt, ii. 261.

2 See the description of this pic-
turesque figure in Temple's Works,
i. 231, and Pontalis, Jean de Witt, i.
362. Bernard von Galen was the last
representative of the warrior prelates
of the Middle Ages. His youth had
been passed in the army, and his vast
wealth enabled him to indulge his

military tastes. As Temple says, he
was undoubtedly, 'in his naturals
rather made for the sword than the
cross.' His position on the Dutch
frontier gave him at this time special
importance, and in June, 1665,
Charles formed an alliance with him
by which, for a large subsidy, he
engaged to maintain 30,000 men and
to attack the Dutch within two
months. In October he took Zutphen
and overran Overyssel.
' Great Charles and Munster will

conjoyne in one
To share his flesh ; let Lewis

pick the bone.'

Brit. Mus. Catalogue of Prints and
Drawings, Div. i. Satires, i. 1,034.
The Dutch diplomacy in the spring
of 1666 was however so successful,
that under the pressure of the Elector
of Brandenburg the bishop was
obliged to make peace in April, so
that England was then without a
single ally. Arli ngton's Letters (i 701 ),
ii. 174. Cf. Dryden, Annus Mira-
bilis, stanza 37. In the war of 1672
he at first joined Louis XIV, but
made peace after the capture of Bonn
by William and Montecuculi in No-
vember, 1673 ; joined the coalition
against Louis, and made peace at
the Treaty of Nimwegen in 1679.
3 Pepys says the same, Aug. 26, 1667.

of King Charles II. 451

believed, he had a great mind to be rid of her. The load CHAP. XI
of that marriage was cast on the lord Clarendon, as made
on design to raise his own grandchildren. Many members
of the house of commons, such as Clifford, Osborne, Carr,
Lyttleton, and Seymour, were brought to the king, 'who
all assured him that upon his restoration they intended
both to have raised his authority and to have increased
his revenue, but that the earl of Clarendon had discouraged
it, and that all his creatures had possessed the house with
such jealousies of the king, that they thought it was not fit
to trust him too much nor too far. This made a deep
impression on the king, who was weary of lord Clarendon's
imposing way, and had a mind to be freed from the
authority, to which he had been so long accustomed, that
it was not easy to keep him within bounds 1. Yet the king
was so afraid to engage himself too deep in his own affairs,
that it was a doubt whether he would dismiss him or not,
if a concern of one of his amours had not sharpened his
resentments. What other considerations could not do,
was brought about by an ill-grounded jealousy. Mistress
Stewart had gained so much on the king, and yet had
kept her ground with so much firmness, that the king 252
seemed | to design, if possible, to legitimate his addresses MS. 126.
to her, since he saw no hope of succeeding any other way 2.

1 See the king's letter to Ormond otherwise I would not have suffered

in Ellis, Original Letters, 2nd series, the Parliament to have done, though

iv. 38: 'The truth is, his behaviour I must tell you that in themselves

and humour was grown so unsup- they are but inconvenient appear-

portable to myself and to all the ances rather than real mischives.'

world else, that I could not longer Mrs. Ady, Madame, 248 ; Claren-

endure it, and it was impossible for don, Cont. ii. 318-322. See also

me to live with it, and do those Pepys, Sept. 2, 1667. According

things with the Parliament that must to Clarke's Life of James II, i.

be done, or the Government will be 428, 429, James was instructed to

lost.' On Nov. 30, he wrote to his tell Clarendon that his dismissal

sister, ' The truth is, the ill conduct ' was not out of any dissatisfac-

of my IA Clarendon in my affaires tion he had against him, but that

has forced me to permitt many in- the necessity of his affairs requir'd

quiryes to be made [referring no it.'

doubt to the Bill for inspecting the 2 The king was once so much

public accounts in 1666], which provoked as to tell her, he hoped he

G g 1

452

The History of the Reign

CHAP. XI. The duke of Richmond, being a widower, courted her1.
The king seemed to give way to it ; and pretended to take
such care of her, that he would have good settlements
made for her. He hoped by that means to have broke the
matter decently, for he knew the duke of Richmond's affairs
were in disorder. So the king ordered lord Clarendon to
examine the estate he pretended to settle. But he was
told, whether true or false I cannot tell, that lord Clarendon
told her that the duke of Richmond's affairs, it is true,
were not very clear ; but that a family so nearly related to
the king could never be left in distress, and that such
a match would not come in her way every day ; so she
had best consider well before she rejected it. This was
carried to the king, as a design he had that the crown
might descend to his own grandchildren ; and that he was
afraid lest strange methods should be taken to get rid of
the queen, and to make way for her. When the king saw
that she had a mind to marry the duke of Richmond, he
offered to make her a duchess, and to settle an estate on
her. Upon this she said, she then saw that she must either
marry him, or suffer much in the opinion of the world.
And she was prevailed on by the duke of Richmond, who
was passionately in love with her, to go privately from
Whitehall, and marry him without giving the king notice.
The earl of Clarendon's son, the lord Cornbury, was going
to her lodgings upon some assignation that she had given
him about her affairs, knowing nothing of her intentions.
He met the king in the door, coming out full of fury 2 ; and

should live to see her ugly and will-
ing : but after she was married, she
had more complaisance, which King
Charles could not forbear telling the
Duke of Richmond, when he was
drunk, at Lord Townshend's in
Norfolk, as my uncle told me, who
was present. D. .

1 Charles Stuart, sixth Duke of
Lennox and fourth Duke of Rich-
mond, was directly descended from

Esme Stuart, first cousin of Henry
Darn ley, whose pedigree is given
in the note supra 5. Upon his mar-
riage, March, 1667, and the scenes
which immediately preceded it, see
De Grammont.

2 This is one of the two or three
instances in which Charles appears
to have lost his customary impertur-
bability. Cf. Lauderdale Papers, iii.
131, 140.

of King Charles II. 453

he, suspecting that lord Cornbury was in the design, spake CHAP. XL
to him as one in a rage, that forgot all decency, and for
some time would not hear lord Cornbury speak in his own
defence. In the afternoon he heard him with more tem-
per, as he [lord Cornbury] himself told me. Yet this
made so deep an impression, that he resolved to take the
seals from his father *. The king said to lord Lauderdale, Aug. 30,
that he had talked of the matter with Sheldon, and that l66?-
he convinced him that it was necessary to remove lord
Clarendon from his post. And as soon as it was done, the
king sent for Sheldon, and told him what he had done ;
but he answered nothing. When the king insisted to oblige
him to declare himself, he said, Sir, I wish you would put
away this woman that you keep. The king upon that
replied sharply, why had he never talked to him of that
sooner, but took this occasion now to speak of it2? Lauder-
dale told me, he had all this from the king : and that the
king and Sheldon had gone into such expostulations upon 253
it, that from that day forward Sheldon could never
recover the king's confidence 3.

1 'As soon as Secretary Morrice Sheldon about this time : ' I beg
brought the Great Scale from my your grace a thousand pardons for
Lord Chancellor [August 30, 1667], the presumption in intruding in an
Bab May (infra 472) fell upon his affair of this nature' (his lordship had
knees and catched the king about objected to the translation of the
the legs, and joj'ed him, and said that Bishop of Limerick to an English
this was the first time that ever he bishopric), ' which, God knows, no-
could call him King of England, thing could have led me into but my
being freed from this great man.' faithful and filial duty to the church,
Pepys, Nov. n, 1667. whose peace and lustre I pray for as

a Salmon, in his Examination of much as I do for myself. Forgive

Burnefs History, i. 608, remarks, me, and give me your benediction.'

1 that if the archbishop's friendship Sheldon MSS. R.
to the lord Clarendon was one in- 3 Sheldon had refused the sacra-

ducement for his grace's using this ment to the king for living in adul-

freedom, as our author would in- tery. S. The king had asked Shel-

sinuate, this rather advances than don, if the Church of England would

depresses Sheldon's character.' The allow of a divorce, where both parties

reverential regard which the Earl of were consenting, and one of them

Clarendon had for the archbishop, lay under a natural incapacity of

is evidenced by the following pas- having children; which he took time

sage in a letter addressed by him to to consider of, under a strict com-

454

The History of the Reign

CHAP. XI. The seals were given to sir Orlando Bridgeman 1, lord
chief justice of the common pleas, then in great esteem,
which he did not maintain long after his advancement.
His study and practice lay so entirely in the common law,
that he never seemed to apprehend what equity was : nor
had he a head made for business or for such a court. He
was a man of great integrity, and had very serious impres-
sions of religion on his mind. He had been always on the
side of the church, yet he had great tenderness for the
nonconformists : and the bishops having all declared for
lord Clarendon, except one or two, he and the new scene
of the ministry were inclined to favour them. The duke
of Buckingham, who had been in high disgrace before lord
Clarendon's fall, came upon that into high favour, and set
up for a patron of liberty of conscience and of all the sects.
1667. The see of Chester happened to fall vacant soon after :
Wilkins was by his means promoted to that see, and it was
no small prejudice to him that he was recommended by so

mand of secresy: but the Duke of
Richmond's clandestine marriage,
before he had given an answer, made
the king suspect he had revealed the
secret to Lord Clarendon, whose
creature Sheldon was known to be.
And this was the true cause of Lord
Clarendon's disgrace. D. Claren-
don himself clearly believed it.
Cont. ii. 477. See his letter of vin-
dication to the king, Nov. 16, 1667.
Ludlow, ii. 407, gives the same ac-
count.

1 Fellow of Magdalen College, Ox-
ford, 1624 ; one of the Parliamentary
Commissioners to treat with the king
in January, 164!. He practised with
reputation throughout the Common-
wealth, and was the first baronet
created at the Restoration. ; The re-
moving him from the Common Pleas
to the Chancery did not at all con-
tribute any increase to his fame,
but rather the contrary; for he was
timorous to an impotence, and that

not mended by his great age. He
laboured very much to please every
body, and that is a temper of ill
consequence in a judge. . . . And
in his time the Court of Chancery
run out of order into delays and
endless motions in causes, so that
it was like a fair field overgrown
with briars. And, what was worst
of all, his family was very ill quali-
fied for that place; his lady being
a most violent intriguess in business,
and his sons kept no good decorum
while they practised under him ; and
he had not a vigour of mind and
strength to coerce the cause of so
much disorder in his family.' North's
Life of Lord Keeper Guilford, 128,
297. In the Examm, 38, North
says that his family l gathered like
a snowball while he had the seals.'
See Clarke's Life of James II, i. 429.
Bridgeman remained Lord Keeper
from Aug. 30, 1667 to Nov. 19,
1672.

of King Charles II. 455

bad a man1. He had a courage in him that could stand CHAP. XI.
against a current, and against all the reproaches with which
ill-natured clergymen studied to load him. He said, he
was called for by the king, without any motion of his own,
to a public station, in which he would endeavour to do all
the good he could, without considering the ill effects that
it might have on himself. The king had such a command
of himself, that when his interest led him to serve any end,
or court any sort of men, he did it so dexterously, and with
such an air of sincerity, that till men were well practised
with him, he was apt to impose on them. He seemed now
to go into moderation and comprehension with so much
heartiness, that both Bridgeman and Wilkins believed he
was in earnest in it: though there was nothing that the
popish counsels were more fixed in, than to oppose all
motions of that kind. But the king saw it was necessary
to recover the affections of his people : and since the church
of England was now gone off from him. upon lord Claren-
don's disgrace, he resolved to shew some favour to the
sects, both to soften them, and to force the others to come
back to their dependence upon him.

He began also to express his concerns in the affairs of
Europe : and as he brought about the peace between
Castile and Portugal2, so now that the king of France
pretended that by the law of Brabant his queen, as the
heir of the king of Spain's first marriage, though a daughter,
was to be preferred to the young king of Spain, as the heir
of the second venter, without any regard to the renunciation

1 Buckingham, it should be remem- 1668. Evelyn, Nov. 14, 1668.

bered, had married the daughter of 2 The negotiations are given in

Lord Fairfax, supra go. Wilkins, detail in Original Letters and Negotia-

upon whom see supra 332, 342, and tions, ii. (1724). The chief difficulty

Pope's Life ofSeth Ward, 27, 138, was between the two kings was that of ac-

Dean of Ripon until created Bishop of knowledging one another to be kings

Chester ; ' now a bishop, a creature of de facto. Spain treated with ' Corona

Buckingham's.' Ludlow, ii. 503. The Portugalis,' and Portugal with the

consecration of 'this incomparable King of Castile. See William Godol-

man. universally beloved of all that phin's letter of May ^f, 1667. A truce

knew him,' took place in November, was made for forty-five years.

456

The History of the Reign

CHAP. XI. of any succession to his queen, stipulated by the peace of
254 the Pyrenees, he was upon that pretension like to overrun
the Netherlands \ Temple was sent over to enter into an
alliance with the Dutch, by which some parts of Flanders
were yielded up to France, but a barrier was preserved for
the security of Holland. Into this the king of Sweden,
then a child, was engaged : from whence it was called the
MS. 127. Triple Alliance. I will say no | more of that, since so par-
ticular an account is given of it by him who could do it
best, Temple himself. It was certainly the masterpiece of
king Charles's life: and, if he had stuck to it, it would have
been both the strength and the glory of his reign2. This
disposed his people to be ready to forgive all that was
passed, and to renew their confidence in the king, which
was much shaken by the whole conduct of the Dutch war.

The parliament were upon their first opening set on to
destroy lord Clarendon. Some of his friends went to him
a few days before the parliament met, and told him many
were at work to find out matter of accusation against him 3.

Oct. TO,

1667.

1 This was a local custom, referring
solely to private property, and in
force in some only of the provinces
of the Spanish Low Countries ; it was
known to lawyers as the jus devolu-
tionis, Mignet, Negotiations, &c. i. 159
et seq, Lindsey MSS., H. M. C. Rep.
xiv ; App. ix. 370.

2 The alliance with the Dutch was
concluded in January, i66|, but
Sweden did not join it until April.
See Ranke, iii. ch. iv. Its successful
conclusion, in a few days, was largely
due to the personal favour in which
Temple was held in the States. For
the terms, see Temple, Works, i. 362.
Burnet was ignorant of the secret
articles threatening the use of force
against whichever of the powers,
France and Spain, should refuse to
make peace, which, when he learnt
them, so angered Louis XIV, that
he was henceforth eager for revenge

upon 'Messieurs les Marchands.'
What Burnet calls Charles's master-
piece was an act of gross political
knavery. His hopes were fixed on
France, and on the day following
the signature of the treaty he wrote
to his sister Henrietta, who was in
the confidence of Louis, and to Louis
himself, to excuse his action on the
plea of momentary necessity. Dal-
rymple, i. 67 (ed. 1790). Temple
recounts Clifford's exclamation, ' For
all this great joy it must not be long
before we have another war with
Holland;' Works, i. 463; ii. 341.

3 Parliament had been summoned,
against the advice of the Duke of
York and of Clarendon, for July 25 ;
but was then prorogued to Oct. 10.
The first attack was on Oct. 26. The
impeachment was voted on Nov. 1 1 —
the same day, it was noticed, as that
of Strafford. Add. MSS. 28,045,

of King Charles II. 457

He best knew what could be brought against him with any CHAP. XI.
truth ; for falsehood was infinite, and could not be guessed
at. They desired he would trust some of them with what
might break out, since probably nothing could lie concealed
against so strict a search ; and the method in which his
friends must manage for him, if there was any mixture or
allay in him, was to be very different from that they would
use if he was sure that nothing could be brought out against
him. The lord Burlington and bishop Morley both told
me they talked to this purpose to him. Lord Clarendon
upon that told them, that if either in matters of justice or
in any negotiations abroad he had ever received a farthing,
he gave them leave to disown all friendship to him. The
French king, hearing he had sent for all the books of the
Louvre impression, had prevented him and sent these to
him, which he took, as thinking it a trifle, as indeed it was :
and this was the only present he ever had from any foreign
prince. He had never taken any thing by virtue of his
office, but what his predecessors had claimed as a right.
But now hue and cry was, as it were, sent out against him :
and all persons who had heard him say any thing that
could bear an ill construction were examined. Some
thought they had matters of great weight against him :
and, when they were told these would not amount to high
treason, they desired to know what would amount to it1.

f. 6 Brit. Mus.). The anti-Clarendon want assistance to make good what

faction in the Council had defeated he said. D. This Earl of Carbery

the Chancellor and Sheldon on the was a man of pleasure and wit, and

point of summoning Parliament. is said by Pepys, Nov. 19, 1667 [who

Verney MSS., June 20, 1667. calls him ' one of the lewdest fellows

1 When they made some difficulty, of the age, worse than Sir Charles

in the House of Commons, of accus- Sedley], to have vowed the destruc-

ing him without proof, the last Earl tion of the chancellor. But the

of Carbery told them, if they would answer also of the chancellor's great

but impeach him, he would under- adversary, Sir William Coventry, to

take to make out the facts afterwards : Pepys, exonerates his character from

though I have heard him since say, any grievous charge. 'I did then,'

he did not know any one thing Pepys says, 'desire to hear what

against him, but knew he had so was the great matter that grounded

many enemies, that he could never his desire of the chancellor's re-

458

The History of the Reign

CHAP. XI. When twenty-three articles were brought into the house
Nov. 6, against him, the next day he desired his second son, the
1667. now earl of Rochester1, to acquaint the house, that he.
hearing what articles were brought against him, did, in
order to the despatch of the business, desire that those who
knew best what their evidence was, would single out any
one of all the articles that they thought could be best
proved ; and if they proved that, he would submit to the
censure due upon them all. But those who had the secret
of this in their hands, and knew they could make nothing
of it, resolved to put the matter upon a preliminary, in
which they hoped to find cause to hang up the whole
matter, and fix upon the lords the denial of justice. So,
according to some few and late precedents, they sent up
a general impeachment to the lords' bar of high treason,
without any special matter, and demanded that upon that
he might be committed to prison. They had reason to
believe the lords would not grant this : and they resolved
to insist on it, and reckoned that, when so much money was
to be given, the king would prevail with the lords. Upon
this occasion it appeared, that the private animosities of
a court could carry them to establish the most destructive
precedent that could have been thought on. For if this
had passed, then every minister upon a general impeach-

moval? He told me many things
not fit to be spoken, and yet not any
thing of his being unfaithful to the
king, but instar omnium, he told me
that while he was so great at the
council-board, and in the adminis-
tration of matters, there was no room
for any body to propose any remedy
to what was amiss, or to compass
any thing, though never so good for
the kingdom, unless approved by the
chancellor, he managing all things
with that greatness ; which now will
be removed, that the king may have
the benefit of others' advice.' Sept.
2, Dec. 3, 1667. R. James II says,
that without Coventry's help Buck-

ingham and Arlington would not
have prevailed against Clarendon ;
and that their jealousy of Coventry's
influence was the cause of his loss of
all his employments in 1668. Clarke's
Life of James //, i. 433. Cf. infra 479.
Coventry, while being Clarendon's
vehement opponent, never seems to
have allowed himself to be one of the
' gang ' which met at Lady Castle-
maine's lodgings. The inferior offices
were now filled by the hangers-on of
Buckingham and Arlington.

1 Laurence Hyde. See his speech,
and the seventeen articles of impeach-
ment in the Pad. Hist. iv. 375, 377.

of King Charles II. 459

ment was to be ruined, though no special matter was laid CHAP. XI.
against him. Yet the king himself pressed this vehemently.
It was said, the very suspicions of a house of commons,
especially such a one as this was, was enough to blast a man,
and to secure him : for there was reason to think that
every person so charged would run away, if at liberty.
Lord Clarendon's enemies had now gone so far that they
thought they were not safe till his head was off: and they
apprehended, that if he were once in prison, it would be
easy either to find, or at least to bring, witnesses against
him. This matter is all in print : so I will go no further in
the particulars. The duke was at this time taken with the
small-pox : so he was out of the whole debate. The peers
thought that a general accusation was only a clamour, and
that their dignities signified little if a clamour was enough
to send them to prison. All the earl of Clarendon's friends
pressed the king much on his behalf, that he might be
suffered to go off gently, and without censure, since he had
served both his father and himself so long, so faithfully,
and with such success. But the king was now so sharpened
against him, that, though he named no particulars, he ex-
pressed a violent and an irreconcileable aversion to him ;
which did the king much hurt in the opinion of all that
were not engaged in the party. The affair of the king's
marriage was the most talked of, as that which indeed was
the only thing that could in any sort justify such a severity.
Lord Clarendon did protest, as some that had it from him-
self told me, that he had no other hand in that matter than 256
as a counsellor: and in that he appealed to the king him-
self. After many debates and conferences and protestations,
in which the whole court went in visibly to that which was
so plainly destructive both to the king and to the ministry,
the majority of the house stood firm, and adhered to their Nov. 20,
first resolution against commitment1. The commons were

1 See the protest against this Buckingham and Arlington among
resolution in the Lords Journals, the lay peers, and by Cosins, Croft,
Nov. 20, 1667. It is signed by and Lucy, the Bishops of Durham,

460

The History of the Reign

CHAP. XI. upon that like to carry the matter far against them, as
denying justice. The king, seeing this, spoke to the
MS. 128. duke | to persuade lord Clarendon to go beyond sea 1, as
the only expedient that was left to make up the breach
between the two houses : and he let fall some words of
kindness, in case he should comply with this. The earl of
Clarendon was all obedience and submission ; and was
charmed with those tender words that the king had said of
him. So, partly to serve the king and save himself and his
family, but chiefly that he might not be the occasion of
any difference between the king and the duke, who had
heartily espoused his interest, he went privately beyond
sea ; and writ a letter from Calais to the house of lords,
protesting his innocence in all the points objected to him,
and that he had not gone out of the kingdom for fear, or
out of any consciousness of guilt, but only that he might
not be the unhappy occasion of any difference between the
two houses, or of obstructing public business2. This put
an end to the dispute. But his enemies called it a con-
fession of guilt, and a flying from justice : such colours will
people give to the most innocent actions3. A bill was
brought in, banishing him the king's dominions, under pain
of treason if he should return : and it was made treason to
correspond with him without leave from the king. This
Dec. 18, act did not pass without much opposition. It was said,
there was a known course of law when any man fled from

1667.

Hereford, and St. David's. Pepys
mentions Reynolds among the three
(Nov. 21, 1667) ; this appears to be
an error.

1 Clarke's Life of James II, i.

43i-

2 The letter was sent by the Lords
to the Commons, who voted it to be
' scandalous, seditious, a reproach of
the king and justice of the king-
dom,' and ordered it to be burnt by
the hangman.

3 Evelyn, Dec. 9, 1667, relates

that after paying a melancholy visit
to the fallen minister, he heard the
next morning that he was gone; and
proceeds to remark, ' I am persuaded
that had he gone sooner, though but
to Cornbury (his country seat), and
there lain quiet, it would have
satisfied the parliament. That which
exasperated them was his presuming
to stay, and to contest the accusation
as long as possible ; and they were
on the point of sending him to the
Tower.' R.

of King Charles II. 461

justice: and it seemed against the common course of CHAP. XI.
justice to make all corresponding with him treason, when
he himself was not attainted of treason l : nor could it be
just to banish him unless a day were given him to come in :
and then, if he did not come in, he might incur the punish-
ment upon contempt. The duke, whom the king had
employed to prevail with him to withdraw himself, thought
he was bound in honour to press the matter home on the
king ; which he did so warmly, that for some time a cold-
ness between them was very visible. The part the king
had acted in this matter came to be known, and was much
censured, as there was just cause for it. The vehemence
that he shewed in this whole matter was imputed by many
to very different causes. Those who knew him best, but
esteemed him least, said to me on this occasion, that all the 257
indignation that appeared in him on this head was founded
on no reason at all ; but was an effect of that easiness,
or rather laziness, of nature that made him comply with
every person that had the greatest credit with him. The
mistress, and the whole bedchamber, were perpetually railing
at him 2. This, by a sort of infection, possessed the king,
who, without giving himself the trouble of much thinking,
did commonly go into any thing that was at the present
time the easiest, without considering what might at any
other time follow on it. Thus the lord Clarendon fell
under the common fate of great ministers, whose employ-
ments expose them to envy, and draw upon them the

1 Bishop of Rochester's [Atter- counterfeit his voice and style very
bury's] case. S. exactly ; which the king was so

2 I have heard my uncle say (who much pleased with, that he made
was a groom of the bed-chamber), him do it before the Duchess of
the first proof the courtiers had of Cleveland, who hated Lord Claren-
his being out of favour, was Harry don most heartily, therefore took
Killigrew's mimicking of him before care he should know what a jest he
the king ; which he could do in a was made of at court, in hopes
very ridiculous manner, by carrying (knowing him to be a very proud
the bellows about the room, instead man) that it would have provoked
of a purse, and another before him him to have quitted his post. D.
with a shovel for a mace, and could In his MS. before spoken of [Claren-

462

The History of the Reign

CHAP. XI. indignation of all who are disappointed in their pretensions1.
Their friends do generally shew that they are only the
friends of their fortunes: and upon the change of favour,
they not only forsake them in their extremity, but, that
they may secure to themselves the protection of a new
favourite, they will redeem all that is past, by turning as
violently against them as they formerly fawned abjectly
on them : and princes are so little sensible of merit or great
services, that they sacrifice their best servants, not only
when their affairs seem to require it, but to gratify the
humour of a mistress or the passion of a rising favourite 2.

I will end this relation of lord Clarendon's fall with an
account of his two sons. The eldest, now the earl of
Clarendon, is a man naturally sincere : except in the
payment of his debts ; in which he has a particular art,
upon his breaking his promises, which he does very often,
to have a plausible excuse, and a new promise ever ready
at hand : in which he has run longer than one could think
possible. He is a friendly and good-natured man. He
keeps an exact journal of all that passes 3, and is punctual
to tediousness in all that he relates. He was very early
engaged in great secrets : for his father, apprehending of

don's Life and Conf.], he intimates,
that his misfortunes were chiefly
owing to the ladies and laughers at
Court. O.

1 An attempt has been made to
sum up briefly the causes of Claren-
don's downfall in ch. xiii of 'The
English Restoration and Louis XIV
in Epochs of Modern History. It is
pointed out in especial that his great
knowledge of and devotion to con-
stitutional law, which were of such
vital service at the Restoration, when
an old order had in great measure
to be revived, prohibited him from
dealing successfully with the new
problems which immediately de-
clared themselves, and which needed
something more than a policy of

negations.

2 Sheffield says of Charles, 'In
one week's absence he would forget
those servants who had been about
him for years,' and W. Godolphin
speaks bitterly of 'the black cloud
of forgetfulness which in courts
always covers absent men.' Spanish
Negotiations, ii. 45.

3 It was published by Dr. Douglas,
afterwards Bishop of Salisbury, to-
gether with his State Letters, in two
volumes quarto, from the Clarendon
Press in 1763. These pieces have
been lately republished by Mr.
Singer, with the addition of the
Correspondence and Diary of his
brother Laurence Hyde, Earl of
Rochester. R.

of King Charles II. 463

what fatal consequence it would have been to the king's CHAP. XI.
affairs, if his correspondence had been discovered by
unfaithful secretaries, engaged him when very young to
write all his letters to England in cipher ; so that he was
generally half the day writing in cipher, or deciphering,
and was so discreet, as well as faithful, that nothing was
ever discovered by him. He continued to be still the
person whom his father trusted most : and was the most
beloved of all the family ; for he was humble and obliging,
but was peevish and splenetic1. His judgment was not
to be much depended on ; for he was much carried by
vulgar prejudices and false notions. He was much2 in the
queen's favour, and was her chamberlain long. His father's
being so violently prosecuted on the | account of her MS. 129.
marriage, made that she thought herself bound to protect
him in a particular manner. He was so provoked at the ill
usage his father met with, that he struck in violently with
the party that opposed the court : and the king spoke 258
always of him with great sharpness and much scorn. His
brother, now earl of Rochester, is a man of far greater
parts. He has a very good pen, but speaks not gracefully3.
He was thought the smoothest man in the court : and
during all the dispute concerning his father, he made his
court so dexterously, that no resentments appeared on that
head. When he came into business, and rose to high posts,
he grew both violent and insolent : but was thought by
many an incorrupt man. He has high notions of govern-
ment, and thinks it must be maintained with great severity.
He delivers up his own notions to his party, that he may
lead them ; and on all occasions he is wilful and imperious.

1 though sometimes peevish, was soon put into a passion, that was
substituted by the editors. so long before he could bring him-

2 much, much, much. S. self out of it, in which he would say

3 He was apt to give a positive things that were never forgot by
assertion instead of an argument ; anybody but himself: therefore had
and when any objection was made always more enemies than he thought
to it, all the answer was, that he he had ; though he had as many
could not help thinking so. And professedly so, as any man of his
I never knew a man that was so time. D.

464 The History of the Reign

CHAP. XI. He passes for a sincere man, and seems to have too much
heat to be false. This natural heat is inflamed by frequent
excesses in drinking. Morley was long dean of the chapel :
but he stuck so to the lord Clarendon, that he was sent
into his diocese : and Crofts, bishop of Hereford, was made
dean in his room. He was a warm devout man, but of no
discretion in his conduct : so he lost ground quickly. He
used much freedom with the king ; but it was in the wrong
place, not in private but in the pulpit.

The king was highly offended at the behaviour of most
of the bishops1, and he took occasion to vent it at the
council board, upon the complaints that were made of some
disorders, and of some conventicles. He said the clergy
were chiefly to blame for these disorders ; for if they had
lived well, and had gone about their parishes, and taken
pains to convince the nonconformists, the nation might
have been by that time well settled ; but they thought of
nothing but to get good benefices, and to keep a good
table. This I read in a letter that sir Robert Moray writ
down to Scotland : and it agrees with a conversation that
the king was pleased to have with my self once, when I was
alone with him in his closet. While we were talking of
the ill state the church was in, I was struck to hear a prince
of his course of life so much disgusted at the ambition,
covetousness, and the scandals of the clergy. He said, if
the clergy had done their part, it had been an easy thing
to have run down the nonconformists: but he added, they
will do nothing, and will have me do every thing: and
most of them do worse than if they did nothing. He told
me he had a chaplain that was a very honest man, but
a very great blockhead, to whom he had given a living in
Suffolk, that was full of that sort of people : he had gone
about among them from house to house, though he could
not imagine what he could say to them, for, he said, he was

1 Sheldon especially was in dis- Dolben and Morley, the Bishops of
grace. Pepys, Dec. 27, 1667. Shortly Rochester and Winchester, were
afterwards the two Hydes, with driven from Court. Id. Feb. 6, 166;-.

of King Charles II.

465

a very silly fellow, but that he believed his nonsense suited CHAP. XI.
their nonsense ; yet he had brought them all to church : 259
and, in reward of his diligence, he had given him a
bishopric in Ireland *.

CHAPTER XII.

ENGLAND FROM THE PEACE OF BREDA TO THE TREATY
OF DOVER. FIRST CONVENTICLE ACT.

BRIDGEMAN and Wilkins set on foot a treaty, for a com-
prehension of such of the dissenters as could be brought
into the communion of the church, and a toleration of the Dec. 1667.
rest -. Hale, the chief justice, concurred with them in the

1 Bishop Woolley had been chap-
lain to both the Charleses, and had
suffered much for his adherence to
their cause. He was afterwards,
according to the account of him in
Antony Wood's Athenae O.row.,made
rector of a church in Essex, in order
to counteract the effects of the
preaching of Stephen Marshall, the
famous Independent minister, his
predecessor in that cure. In 1665
he was promoted to the see of Clon-
fert, 'where,' as it is said by the
same writer, * he sat for some time,
and was held in great admiration for
his admirable way of preaching, and
exemplary life and conversation.' R.

2 This scheme was under the
patronage of Buckingham (Pepys,
Dec. 21, 1667^, who was playing
the statesman after Clarendon's fall,
and of Arlington, who sympathized
warmly with the Catholics. It lasted
until Parliament met in February,
i66|. The policy of indulgence,
and the dread of Clarendon's return,
were the only feelings which these
rivals had in common. We soon
hear of the 'insolencies ' of the Non-

VOL. I.

H

conformists (Andrew Marvell, March
7, i66|-) ; and Pepys has many notices
showing that they were breathing
freely. On Nov. 22, 1667, the king
listened to a congratulatory speech
from Dr. Bates. Somers Tracts, viii.
ii. There are many passages in the
Sheldon MSS. which show that be-
fore Clarendon actually fell, the penal
laws were almost a dead letter, so far
as the magistrates were concerned.
Thus the Bishop of Chester wrote
to Sheldon, April 5, i66|, ' I am still
informed of several incorrigible Non-
conformists, who continue to preach
in many parts of this diocese, not-
withstanding my certificate to the
respective Justices, who indeed are
so remiss and languid putting laws
in execution, as if they reserved
themselves for some new revolution.'
See Marvell, ii. 239 (Grosart's ed.).
Some of Cromwell's old officers,
such as Wildman, who had been in
confinement since 1662, were now
released. Clarke's Life of James II,
i. 434. The effect of the change was
felt equally in Scotland. Lauderdale
Papers, ii, and supra 427.

h

466

The History of the Reign

CHAP. XII. design. Tillotson, Stillingfleet, and Burton 1 joined also in
it. Bates, Manton, and Baxter were called for on the side of
the presbyterians ; and a project was prepared, consisting
chiefly of those things that the king had promised by
his declaration in the year 1660. Only in the point of
reordination this temper was proposed, that those who
had presbyterian ordination should be received to serve
in the church by an imposition of hands, accompanied
with words which imported that the person so ordained
was received to serve as a minister in the church of
England. This treaty became a common subject of
discourse. Many books were printed upon it. All lord
Clarendon's friends cried out that the church was under-
mined and betrayed. It was said the cause of the church
was given up if we yielded any of those points about which
there had been so much disputing : if the sectaries were
humble and modest, and would tell what would satisfy
them, there might be some colour for granting some con-
cessions : but it was unworthy of the church to go and
court, or treat with, enemies, when there was no reason to
think that, after we had departed from our grounds, which
was to confess we had been in the wrong, that we should
gain much by it. unless it were to bring scorn and contempt
on ourselves. On the other hand it was said, the noncon-
formists could not legally meet together to offer any
schemes in the name of their party : it was well enough
known what they had always excepted to, and what would
probably bring over most of the presbyterians: such

MS. 130. a yielding j in some lesser matters would be no reproach,
but an honour to the church ; that, how much soever
superior she might be both in point of argument and of
power, [she] would yet of her own accord, and for peace
sake, yield a great deal in matters indifferent. The apostles
complying with many of the observances of the Jews, and
the offers that the church of Africk made to the Donatists,

1 Hezekiah Burton, a London
divine, whose posthumous sermons

were published by Archbishop Til-
lotson. R.

of King Charles II. 467

were much insisted on. The fears of popery, and the CHAP. XII.
progress that atheism was making, did alarm good and
wise men, and they thought every thing that could be
done without sin ought to be done towards the healing our
divisions. Many books were upon that occasion writ to
expose the presbyterians as men of false notions in re-
ligion, which led to Antinomianism, and that would soon 260
carry them into a dissolution of morals, under a pretence
of being justified by faith only, without works. The three
volumes of the Friendly Debate, though writ by a very
good man x, and with a good intent, had an ill effect in
sharpening people's spirits too much against them. But
the most virulent of all that writ against the sects was
Parker, afterwards made bishop of Oxford by king James,
who was full of satirical vivacity, and was considerably
learned ; but was a man of no judgment, and of as little
virtue, and as to religion he seemed rather to have become
quite impious. After he had for some years entertained
the nation with several virulent books, writ with much life,
he was attacked by the liveliest droll of the age, who writ
in a burlesque strain, but with so peculiar and so enter-
taining a conduct, that from the king down to the trades-
man his book was read with great pleasure. That not
only humbled Parker, but the whole party : for the author
of the Rehearsal Transprosed 2 had all the men of wit (or,

1 Writt by Bishop Patrick. S. See answered,' in 1670. In 1672 Marvell
supra 336, note. replied by the first part of the

2 Andrew Marvell. S. ' We still Rehearsal Transprosed, in which
read Marvell's answer to Parker with Parker figures as Mr. Bayes, a
pleasure, though the book it answers character in Buckingham's play The
is sunk long ago.' Swiff s Apology Rehearsal. Parker was stung to
prefixed to the Tale of the Tub. R. an ill-tempered rejoinder, affording
Parker published his Discourse of Marvell another opportunity, of
Ecclesiastical Polity, i wherein the which he availed himself so effect-
authority of the Civil Magistrate in ively in the second part of the Re-
matters of external religion is hearsal Transprosed, that no more
asserted, the mischiefs and incon- was heard of his opponent. Writing
veniences of Toleration are repre- on May 3, 1673, to Sir E. Harley, he
sented, and all pretences pleaded in says : ' Dr. Parker will be out next
behalf of Liberty of conscience fully week ... I perceive by what I have

H h 2

468

The History of the Reign

CHAP. XII. as the French phrase it, all the laughers) of his side. But
what advantages soever the men of comprehension might
have in any other respect, the majority in the house of
commons was so possessed against them, that when it
was known, in a succeeding session, that a bill was ready
to be offered to the house for that end, a very extra-
ordinary vote passed that no bill to that purpose should
be received 1.

Oct. 1667. An act passed in this session that gave lord chief justice
Hale great reputation, for rebuilding the city of London,
which was drawn with so true a judgment, and so great
foresight, that the whole city was raised out of its ashes
without any suits of law ; v/hich, if that bill had not
prevented them, would have brought a second charge on
the city, not much less than the fire it self had been. And
upon that, to the amazement of all Europe, London was in

read that it is the rudest book, one
or other, that ever was published —
I may say since the first invention
of printing. Although it handles me
so roughly, yet I am not at all amated
by it. ... However, I will for my own
private satisfaction forthwith draw
up an answer that shall have as
much of spirit and solidity in it as
my ability will afford and the age
we live in will endure. I am, if I
may say it with reverence, drawn
in, I hope by a good Providence, to
intermeddle in a high and noble
argument, which therefore by how
much it is above my capacity, I shall
use the more industry not to dis-
parage it.' Portland MSS., H. M. C.
Rep. xiv. App. ii. 337. Marvell's
second controversial work, Mr.
Smirke, or the Divine in Mode (1676),
a defence of Croft, Bishop of Here-
ford (Mr. Smirke is the chaplain
in Etheredge's Man of Mode),
against a violent attack by Turner,
Master of St. John's, Cambridge,
obtained an equal success. See

Croft's letter of thanks, July, 1676.
Marvell, ii. 489. Marvell was a
master of banter. Charles himself
interfered when the licenser,
L'Estrange, wished to suppress the
second edition of the first part of
the Rehearsal Transprosed. H. M.
C. Rep. vi. 518. Marvell died in
1678.

1 In April, the proposal to ask the
king to bring together divines of
various persuasions was defeated by
167 to 70. Marvell, April n, 1668.
Charles had already, in March, been
forced to issue a proclamation against
conventicles ; and in September the
Corporation Act was enforced by
an order in council to the justices,
who had been lax in enforcing the
penal laws. Ranke notes that the
king's endeavour to tolerate Pro-
testant Dissent had, by rousing the
jealousy of Parliament as to his
real intention of favouring the
Catholics, brought about complete
unanimity in a hitherto disunited
body ; cf. iii. 482.

of King Charles II. 469

four years' time rebuilt1, with so much beauty and magni- CHAP.XII.
ficence, that we who saw it in both states, before and after
the fire, cannot reflect on it without wondering where the
wealth could be found to bear so vast a loss as was made
by the fire, and so prodigious an expense as was laid out
in the rebuilding it. This did demonstrate that the intrinsic
wealth of the nation was very high when it could answer
such a dead charge.

I return to the intrigues of the court. Lord Clarendon's
enemies thought they were not safe as long as the duke had
so much credit with the king, and the duchess had so much
power over him : so they fell on propositions of a strange
nature to ruin them. The duke of Buckingham a pressed
the king to own a marriage with the duke of Monmouth's
mother, and he undertook to get witnesses to attest it. 261
The duke of York told me, in general, that there was much
talk about it, but he did not descend to particulars. The
earl of Carlisle offered to begin the matter in the house of
lords 3. The king would not consent to this, yet he put it

1 See Roger North's Autobio- and the day into night), he neglected
graphy, 76, for the jerry-building both his attendance upon the king,
which went on under the hands of the receiving of ministers, and indeed
Nicholas Barbon, son of Praise-God all sorts of business ; so that he
Barbon. It is stated by Pepys, Dec. 3, lasted not long.' Reresby's Memoirs,
1667, that after the rebuilding land 76 (ed. Cartwright".

hitherto worth fourpence a foot 3 See Marvell, March ai, i6f| :

was expected to be worth fifteen ' It is my opinion that Lauderdale at

shillings. See the king's instructions one ear talks to the king of Mon-

for rebuilding, Cal. St. P. Dom. mouth, and Buckingham at the other

1666-7, 121. The first Rebuilding of a new queen.' In Macpherson,

Act passed in October, 1667, and Orig. Pap. 45, Carlisle and Shaftes-

a second in April, 1670. Statutes at bury are joined with Lauderdale,

Large, iii. 303, 331. and Bristol with Buckingham. There

2 'The Duke of Buckingham . . . is a memorandum extant from Bridge-
acted as principal Minister of State. man to Arlington to the effect that
The king consulted him in all matters some time before October, 1670,
of moment, the foreign ministers Charles insisted upon the writ to
applied themselves to him before Monmouth running i filio nostro
they had audience of the king ; but naturali et illegitimo.' The patent
he was so unfit for this character, by creating him duke does not name
reason of his giving himself up to his him l filius.' CaL St. P. Dom. 1670,
pleasures (turning the night into day 492. The apprehension that he

470 The History of the Reign

C«AP. XII. by in such a manner as made them all conclude he wished
it might be done, but did not know how to bring it about.
These discourses were all carried to the duke of Monmouth,
and got fatally into his head. When the duke talked of
this matter to me in the year [i6]y3 I asked him if he
thought the king had still the same inclinations ? He said
he believed not : he thought the duke of Monmouth had
not spirit enough to think of it, and he commended the
duchess of Monmouth so highly, as to say to me that
the hopes of a crown could not work on her to do an unjust
thing. I thought he gave that matter too much counte-
nance by calling the duke of Monmouth nephew : but he
said he knew it pleased the king. When the party saw
they could make nothing of the business of the duke of
Monmouth, they tried next by what methods they could
get rid of the queen, that so the king might marry another
wife : for the king had children by so many different
creatures, that they hoped for issue if he had a wife fit or
capable of any. Some thought the queen and he were not
legally married : but the avowing a marriage, and the
living many years in that state, did certainly supply any
defect in point of form. Others pretended she was barren
from a natural cause, and that seemed equivalent to frigidity
in men ; but the king had often said he was sure she had
once miscarried. This, though not overthrown by such an
evidence, could never be proved, unless the having no
children was to be concluded a barrenness : and the dis-

MS. 131. solving | a marriage on such an account could neither be
justified in law nor conscience. Other stories were given
out of the queen's person, which were false, for I saw in
a letter under the king's own hand that the marriage was
consummated l. Others talked of polygamy : and officious
persons were ready to thrust themselves into any thing
that could contribute to their advancement. Lord Lauder-
dale and sir Robert Moray asked my opinion of these

would be acknowledged as legiti- the Duke of York and him,' was rife
mate, and that in consequence 'there in 1662. Pepys, Dec. 31, 1662.
will be a difference follow between l See supra 307, and 308, note.

of King Charles II. 471

things. I said I knew speculative people could say a great CHAP. XII.
deal in the way of argument for polygamy and divorce :
yet these things were so decried, that they were rejected
by all Christian societies : so that a all such propositions a
would throw us into great convulsions, and entail wars upon
us if any issue came from a marriage so grounded1.

An accident happened at that time that made the dis-
coursing of those matters the common subject of conversa-
tion. The lord Roos, now earl of Rutland, brought proofs 262
of adultery against his wife, and obtained a sentence of
divorce in the spiritual court ; which amounting only to
a separation from bed and board, he moved for a bill dis-
solving the bond, and enabling him to marry another wife.
The duke and all his party apprehended the consequences
of a parliamentary divorce : so they opposed this with
great heat, and almost all the bishops were of that side :
only Cosins and Wilkins, the bishops of Durham and
Chester, were for it2; and the king was as earnest in the

a substituted for these methods they were in.

1 There is extant a brief resolution as in the Appendix to Macky's
by Burnet of two cases of conscience, Memoirs]. He says above, supra 308,
viz., 7s a woman s barrenness a just that he was once persuaded that the
ground for divorce or polygamy ; and queen was not fit for marriage. R.
is polygamy in any case lawful under 2 Of which one doted through age
the Gospel? The questions are re- and the other was reputed a Socinian.
solved affirmatively. The original, Life of James II, i. 439. Ralph and
in the author's hand-writing, was Marvell add Reynolds as opposing
copied at Ham in 1680, with Duke the Bill. Marvell adds that 'Anglesey
Lauderdale's permission, by Pater- and Ashley, who study and know
son, Archbishop of Glasgow, as he their interests as well as any gentle-
had testified under his episcopal seal,' men at Court, and whose sons have
Burnet's papers being then in the married two sisters of Roos, yet
duke's possession. [Cf. infra 601, they also drive on the Bill with the
note. They were written about 1671 greatest vigour.' March 21, i6ff.
at Lauderdale's request. See Burnet's Wilkins, according to Ludlow, 503,
Reflections on Dr. Hickes's Discourses, urged, like Burnet, that ' divorce
76, where he says that he afterwards might be not only in case of adultery,
retracted the paper and answered all but alsoe of the immundicity of the
the material things in it.] The cases womb, which is given forth to bee
were printed in 1731 [and are re- the queen's condition, and where-
printed in full by Higgons, as well with she was soe touched, that shee

472

The History of the Reign

CHAP. XII. setting it on as the duke was in opposing it. The zeal
which the two brothers expressed on that occasion made
all people conclude that they had a particular concern in
the matter. The bill passed : and upon that precedent
some moved the king that he would order a bill to be
brought in to divorce him from the queen. This went so
far that a day was agreed on for making the motion in the
house of commons, as Mr. May of the privy purse told me,
who had the greatest and the longest share in the king's
secret confidence of any man in that time ; for it was
never broke off, though often shaken, he being in his
notions against every thing that the king was for, both
France, popery, and arbitrary government : but a particular
sympathy of temper, and his serving the king in his vices 1,
created a confidence much envied, and often attempted to
be broke, but never with any success beyond a short cold-
ness. But he added, when he told me of this design, that

wept day and night, though her
husband to appease her for the
present sweares he will have him
hanged that shall speake thereof.'
Charles himself publicly expressed
the same view. Marvell, April 14,
1670. Charles, whether he had any
real purpose of using the decision as
suggested or not, took the liveliest
interest in the proceedings. He
attended the debates in the Lords,
and was thanked by them. Evelyn,
Feb. 22 ; Marvell, March 21, 26,
i6f|. The Bills received the royal
assent, April u. From a letter in
the Verney MSS., March 10, i6ff, it
appears that ' the 5 and 19 chapters
of S*. Matthew and 10 Mark and 16
Luke are the principall places about
this business.' There was a pre-
cedent in the case of the Marquis of
Northampton, who ' did marry again
after his first wife was put away for
adultery, and in Edw. VIth'8 time the
last marriage was confirmed and the
children made legitimate by Act of

Parliament.' Id. The sentence of
divorce in the Ecclesiastical Court
was followed by an Act which re-
ceived the royal assent on Feb. 8,
166^, making Lord Roos's children
illegitimate. In her petition to the
Lords, Feb. 2, 1668, Lady Roos
stated that for four years she had
not received a penny from her
husband and was absolutely destitute.
H. M. C. Rep. viii. 104, 117, 141.
The parliamentary divorce here
narrated, which was not enacted
until i6|f, is antedated by Burnet
to 1668. Clarendon, Cont. 999-
- 1008.

1 ' Bab May went down in great
state to Winchelsea with the Duke
of York's letters, not doubting to be
chosen ; and then the people chose
a private gentleman in spite of him,
and cried out that they would have
no Court pimp to be their burgesse.'
Pepys, Oct. 21, 1666. 'Bab May,
Lady Castlemaine, and that wicked
crew.' Id. Sept. 2, 1667.

of King Charles II. 473

three days before the motion was to be made, the king CHAP. XII.
called for him, and told him that matter must be let alone,
for it would not do. This disturbed him much, for he had
engaged himself far in laying the thing, and in managing
those who were to undertake the debate.

At this time the court fell into much extravagance in
masquerading ; both king and queen, and all the court, went
about masked, and came into houses unknown, and danced 1.a
People were so disguised, that without being on the secret
none could distinguish them 2. They were carried about in
hackney chairs. Once the queen's chairmen, not knowing
who she was, went from her : so she was alone, and was
much disturbed, and came to Whitehall in a hackney
coach : some said it was in a cart. The duke of Bucking-
ham proposed to the king, that if he would give him leave
he would steal her away, and send her to a plantation,
where she should be well and carefully looked to, but never
heard of any more ; so it should be given out that she had
deserted ; and upon that it would fall in with some principles 263
to carry an act for a divorce, grounded upon the pretence
of a wilful desertion 3. Sir Robert Moray told me that the
king himself rejected this with horror. He said it was

ft there with a great deal of wild frolic. In all this struck out.

1 See, besides Pepys, passim, the H. M. C. Rep. xiv. App. ii. 322. 'My

Portland MSS., H. M. C. Rep. xiv. children are in no heart to marry ;

App. ii. 294 ; and for the excessive and I believe if they do not marry

plainness of the skits upon Lady till they can have religious men they

Castlemaine, id. 296. The private never will. I think they will not be

family correspondence of the time in the worse condition if they never

abounds with expressions of disgust do unless men were better . . . than

at the state of London, ' that wicked as the world goes now.' Lady Fitz-

towne ' (Verney MSS.\ and with james, id. App. iii. 339. See also

hopes that the younger members who Marvell to Ramsden, undated (Gro-

have to go there will 'remain pure sart\ ii. 390; and infra 476.

in the general profanity of London ' 2 King George. S. Swift alludes

(Isham MSS.\ 'Sin every day to similar frolics in the Court of

grows high and impudent : The Lord George I. R.

I trust will graciously provide a 3 Bevill Higgons pours well de-
hiding-place for his poor children.' served ridicule upon this story.
Sir E. Harley, Portland MSS. iii., Remarks, 246.

474

The History of the Reign

CHAP. XII. a wicked thing to make a poor lady miserable, only be-
cause she was his wife, and had no children by him, which
was no fault of hers. The hints of this broke out : for the
duke of Buckingham could conceal nothing. And upon
that the earl of Manchester, then lord chamberlain, told
the queen, it was neither decent nor safe for her to go about
in such a manner as she had done of late : so she gave it
over. But at last all these schemes settled in a proposition
into which the king went, which was to deal with the
queen's confessor, that he might persuade her to leave the
world, and to turn religious: upon which the parliament
would have been easily prevailed on to pass a divorce.
This came to be known : but what st-eps were made in it
were never known. It was believed that upon this the
duchess of York sent an express to Rome with the notice
of her conversion ; and that orders were sent from Rome
to all about the queen to persuade her against such a pro-
position, if any should suggest it to her. She herself had
no mind to be a nun, and the duchess was afraid of seeing
another queen: and the mistress, created at that time
1670. duchess of Cleveland, knew that she must be the first
sacrifice to a beloved queen: and she reconciled herself
upon this to the duchess of York l. The duke of Bucking-
ham upon that broke with her, and studied to take the
king from her by new amours : and because he thought
a gaiety of humour would take much with the king, he
engaged him to entertain two players one after another,
Davis and Gwyn. The first did not keep her hold long ;
but Gwyn, the indiscreetest and wildest creature that ever
MS. 132. was in a court2, yet continued | to the end of the king's
life in great favour, and was maintained at a vast expense.
The duke of Buckingham told me, that when she was first

1 Cal. St. P. Dom. 1670, 357.

2 Forneron (Louise de Keroualle)
gives some amusing and hitherto
unpublished instances of a buoyant
and humorous ' indiscretion.' Of
her relatives, her father appears to

have died in prison at Oxford, and
' Nell's mother was drowned dead
drunk in a ditch, 'July, 1679. Luttrell.
See Wheatley's ed. of Cunningham's
Life of Nell Gwynn (1892), xxi-xxv,
and 5.

of King Charles II. 475

brought to the king she asked only five hundred pounds CHAP. XII
a year, and the king refused it ; but when he told me this,
about four years after, he said she had got of the king
above sixty thousand pounds. She acted all persons in so
lively a manner, and was such a constant diversion to the
king, that even a new mistress could not drive her away.
But after all, he never treated her with the decencies of a
mistress 1, but rather with the lewdness of a prostitute, as
she had been indeed to a great many : and therefore she
called the king her Charles the third, since she had been
formerly kept by two of that name. The king had another
mistress, that was managed by Shaftesbury 2, that was the
daughter of a clergyman, Robarts ; in whom her first
education had so deep a root, that, though she fell into
many scandalous disorders, with very dismal adventures in
them all, yet a principle of religion was so deep laid in her,
that, howsoever it did not restrain her, yet it kept alive in
her such a constant horror at sin, that she was never easy 264
in an ill course, and died with a great sense of. her former
ill life, for I was often with her the last three months of
her life3. The duchess of Cleveland, finding that she had
lost the king 4, abandoned herself to great disorders : one of
which, by the artifice of the duke of Buckingham, was dis-
covered by the king in person, the party concerned leaping
out at the window 5. She also spoke of the king to all people

1 Pray what decencies are those ? A prophet formed to make a
S. female proselyte."

2 There is no evidence of this. Hind and Panther, part iii. 2438.

3 ' I cannot but say she was very * The king made Will Legge sing
lucky in her choice of a confessor ; a ballad to her, that began with these
it was hard to find one with limbs words — Poor Allinda?s growing old ;
more brawny, conscience more those charms are now no more— which
supple, or principles more loose ; all she understood were applied to her-
these extreme good qualifications for self. D. Nevertheless, ' The great
a lady of pleasure.' Philalethes, Duchess of Cleveland goes about the
Remarks upon Bishop Burnefs Post- streets with 8 horses in her coach,
humous History, 1724, 56. Dryden the streets, balconies, and windows
is as scurrilous : full of people to admire her.' Cat.

'Broad back'd, and brawny, built St. P. Dom. 1671, 271.

for love's delight; 5 Jack Churchill, since Duke of

476 The History of the Reign

CHAP. XII. in such a manner, as brought him under much contempt.
But he seemed insensible : and though libels of all sorts had
then a very free course, yet he was never disturbed at it.

The three most eminent wits of that time, on whom all
the lively libels were fastened, were the earls of Dorset and
Rochester, and sir Charles Sedley. Lord Dorset was
a generous good-natured and modest man. He was so
oppressed with phlegm, that till he was a little heated with
wine he scarce ever spoke, but was upon that exaltation
a very lively man. Never was so much ill nature in a pen
as in his, joined with so much good nature as is in himself,
even to excess, for he is against all punishing, even of
malefactors. He is bountiful, even to run himself into
difficulties, and charitable to a fault ; for he commonly
gives all he has about him, when he meets an object that
moves him. But he was so lazy, that, though the king
seemed to court him to be a favourite, he would not give
himself the trouble that belonged to that post. He hated
the court, and despised the king, when he saw he was
neither generous nor tender hearted. Wilmot, earl of
Rochester, was naturally modest, till the court corrupted
him. His wit had a peculiar brightness, to which none
could ever arrive. He gave himself up to all sorts of
extravagance, and to the wildest frolics that a wanton wit
could devise. He would have gone about the streets as
a beggar, and made love as a porter. He set up a stage
as an Italian mountebank. He was for some years always
drunk, and was ever doing some mischief. The king loved
his company for the diversion it afforded, better than his
person : and there was no love lost between them l. He
took his revenges in many libels. He found out a footman
that knew all the court, and he furnished him with a red
coat and a musket as a sentinel, and kept him all the

Marlborough ; who, the duchess ported to have said to Churchill on

said, had received a great deal of this occasion, ' I forgive you, for you

her money for very little service done do it for your bread.' {Aff. Etr.

her, to a near relation of hers, from Angleterre, vol. 137, f. 400.)

whom I had" it. D. Charles is re- l A noble phrase. S.

of King Charles II. 477

winter long every night at the doors of such ladies as he CHAP. XII.
believed might be in intrigues. In the court a sentinel is
little minded, and is believed to be posted by a captain of
the guards to hinder a combat : so this man saw who
walked about and visited at forbidden hours. By this
means lord Rochester made many discoveries, and when he
was well furnished with materials, he used to retire into
the country for a month or two to write libels. Once 265
being drunk, he intended to give the king a libel that he
had writ on some ladies, but by a mistake he gave him
one wrote on himself1. He fell into an ill habit of body,
and in several fits of sickness he had deep remorses ; for he
was guilty both of much impiety and of great immoralities.
But as he recovered he threw these off, and turned again to
his former ill courses. In the last year of his life I was
much with him, and have writ a book of what passed
between him and me. I do verily believe, he was then so
entirely changed, that if he had recovered he would have
made good all his resolutions 2. Sedley had a more sudden
and copious wit, which furnished a perpetual run of dis-
course : but it was not so correct as lord Dorset's, nor so
sparkling as lord Rochester's. The duke of Buckingham
loved to have these much about him : and he gave himself
up into a monstrous course of studied immoralities of the
worst kinds. He was so full of mercury that he could not
fix long in any friendship or to any design. Bennet 3, now
made lord Arlington, and he fell out 4 : the one was all

1 Beginning, ' In the Isle of Great penitent at present.' Lady Russell
Britain long since famous known.' to Lord W. Russell, 1680. He died
SeeCurirslVorftso/JRoscommonand July 26, 1680. Burnet's book was
Rochester. published the same year.

2 ' My Lord Rochester does appear 3 'A weak man, and with his pride
a real convert. He cannot live, he very timorous : yet had cursed cun-
has ulcers in two places. He sees ning.' Macpherson, Orig. Pap. 50.
nobody but his mother, wife, divines, Cf. supra 181, note.

and physicians.' Dorothy, Countess 4 The differences between the two

of Sunderland, to Halifax, July 8, rivals for Clarendon's succession were

1680 (Sacharissa, by Julia Cart- common property. Cf. supra 465.

wright, 277). ' Lord Rochester has ' Buckingham and Arlington are still

converted his wife, and is a mighty pecking one at the other.' They

478 The History of the Reign

CHAP.XH. cunning and artifice, and so could not hold long with him
who was so open that he blabbed out every thing. Lord
Arlington was engaged in a great intimacy with Clifford,
Lyttleton, and Buncombe. I have already given some
account of the two first. Buncombe was a judicious man,
but very haughty, and apt to raise enemies against himself:
he was an able parliament man, but could not go in to all
the designs of the court ; for he had a sense of religion, and
a zeal for the liberty of his country 1. The duke of Buck-
ingham's chief friends were the earls of Shaftesbury and
Lauderdale, but above all sir Thomas Osborn, raised after-
wards to be lord treasurer and earl of Banby, and made
duke of Leeds by the late kinga.

The king took sir William Coventry from the duke, and
put him in the treasury. He was in a fair way to be the
chief minister, and deserved it more than all the rest did.
But he was too honest to engage into the designs into
which the court was resolved to turn, as soon as it had
recovered a little reputation, which was sunk very low by
the ill management of the Butch war, and the squandering
away of the money given to it. He was the man of the
finest parts and the best temper that belonged to the court.

MS. 133. » He is a very \ ignorant man in all the parts of knowledge, and is neither
a man of wit nor of quick parts, but has a clear judgment and a flowing copious
expression, even to tediousness : he has an undertaking way with him, so that
till matters break in his hands he gives full assurances, and undertakes boldly,
and when the hopes he had given fail, he has always somewhat ready on which
he lays the disappointment so positively that he seems to acquit himself fully. He
passes for a man that has no regard to truth, and that will pursue his revenge
very far, nor is to be put out of countenance by any discovery, for he can deny
things with an assurance that has all the airs of sincerity and truth in it. His
lady is more than half mad, yet she has such power over him that she engages
him to pursue all her quarrels as well as his own. struck out.

'have made friends, and long it will St. Edmunds : Commissioner of Ord-

last.' ' They have broke out again/ nance in 1670, and Chancellor of the

Verney MSS., Oct. 13, Nov. TO, 16, Exchequer in 1672. His speeches,

1669. They maintained a formal as reported, show much good sense

union until they had disarmed their and humanity. ' Resolute, proud,

only competitor, William Coventry. and industrious' is Pepys's com-

1 Buncombe was member for Bury ment, April 24, and May 31, 1667.

of King Charles II.

479

The duke of Buckingham and he fell out, I know not for CHAP.XII.
what reason, and a challenge passed between them : upon ^"
which he was forbid the court 1 ; and he upon that seemed
to retire very willingly. And he became a very religious
man when I knew him. He was offered after that the best
posts in the court, oftener than once : but he would never
engage again 2. He saw what was at bottom, and was 266
resolved not to go through with it ; and so continued to
his death in a retired course of life.

1 Sir William Coventry was the
most esteemed and beloved of any
courtier that ever sat in the House
of Commons, where his word always
passed for an undoubted truth with-
out further inquiry, which the Duke
of Buckingham would have had him
make use of to deceive them, upon
which Coventry challenged him, as
his nephew, Lord Weymouth, told
me. D. According to Pepys, Oct.
23, 1668, and March 4, i66f, the
offence was characteristic of Buck-
ingham. He designed, with Sir R.
Howard, 'to bring Coventry into a
play in the King's House.' There is
scarcely a dissentient note (if we
omit Clarendon's verdict) in the
general testimony to William Coven-
try's worth and integrity ; though
James himself says that Coventry
gave up his post as his secretary in
order to be free to attack Clarendon.
Clarke's Life of James II, i. 431.
See supra 458, note. He was made
Commissioner of the Treasury, May,
1667. Sir Edward Hinton, writing
to Sir E. Harley about the incident
in the text, says, indeed ' It is much
to be wondered at here how he
durst attempt such a thing (sc. the
challenge to Buckingham) the world
knowing him to be a coward and a
knave.' H. M. C. Rep. xiv. App. ii.
311. Coventry was expelled the
Council and sent to the Tower,

March 5. See Newsletter, March 9,
i66f , Fleming Papers ; Danby Papers,
Add. MSS. 28,040. Charles's own
notice of the event is characteristic,
; I am not sorry that Sir Will:
Coventry has given me this good
occasion, by sending my LH of Buck-
ingham a challenge, to turne him out
of the Council. I do intend to turn
him also out of the Tresury. The
truth of it is, he has been a trouble-
some man in both places, and I am
well rid of him.' Charles to Hen-
rietta of Orleans, March 7, i66f,
Mrs. Ady's Madame, 283. Coventry
died in 1686. Buckingham and Ar-
lington succeeded also in securing the
appointment of Trevor as secretary
in place of Morrice, December, 1668.
Cal. St. P. Dom. 1668-9, 89.

2 In any court office : but continued
to attend the Parliament, acting a
great part there, in very able though
decent opposition to the court mea-
sures; and those debates were chiefly
carried on between him and his
^brother Mr. Henry Coventry, then
Secretary of State, who however
was of a fair character in himself,
and deemed the only honest minister
the king had since my Lord Claren-
don. O. Marvell in Last Instruc-
tions, 228, distinguishes thus between
the brothers :

' While hector Harry steers by
Will the wit.'

480

The History of the Reign

CHAP. XII. The duke of Ormond continued still in the government

o

of Ireland, though several interests joined together against
him ; the earls of Orrery and Ranelagh on the one hand,
and Talbot on the other. Lord Orrery1 was a deceitful
and vain man, who loved to appear in business, but dealt
so much underhand that he had not much credit with any
side. Lord Ranelagh 2 was a young man of great parts,
and as great vices : he had a pleasantness in his conversa-
tion that took much with the king, and he had great
dexterity in business a. Many complaints were secretly
brought against the duke of Ormond. The king loved him,
and he accommodated himself much to the king's humour.
Feb. i66|. Yet the king was, with much difficulty, prevailed on to put
an end to his government of Ireland 3, and to put lord
Robarts 4, afterwards made earl of Radnor, in his place ;

a Few trusted him, though every body loved his company, and nobody hated
himself, for he was very ready to serve all people, and was free of malice and
spite, struck out. - — — — —

1 'A person famous for having that Charles described Orrery as a

changed parties so often, and for his
speech to Cromwell to take upon him
the title of king/ Life of James II,
i. 435. In Macpherson's Orig. Pap.
43, the following sentence is added :
' His tongue was well hung ; he had
some good parts, and he was reckoned
so cunning a man that nobody would
trust him/ Cf. supra 115, 125, note.
See the Essex Papers, passim, for the
strongly adverse opinion of straight-
forward men. On Dec. i, 1669, he
was forced to defend himself on a
charge of defrauding the king's
subjects and raising money on his
own authority for bribing hungry
courtiers. He did so with great
ability, and finally the motion for
impeachment was rejected by 121
to 1 1 8, and the accusation left to
be prosecuted at law. Parl. Hist.
iv. 440 ; Marvell, Nov. 4, 1669 ;
Morrice's Memoirs of the Earl of
Orrery, ch. vi. Colbert, writing
to Louis on Nov. 13, 1669, states

Catholic in heart, to whom he looked
to supply Ormond's place in Ireland
if the latter abandoned his allegiance
when he himself acknowledged his
Catholicism. Dalrymple, i. 90.

2 On Ranelagh see f. 398. He
was as active, in 1672, in trying to
undermine the power of the honest
Essex as now in plotting against the
honest Ormond.

3 'A great stroke to show the
power of Buckingham, and the poor
spirit of the king, and the little hold
that any man can have of him/
Pepys, Feb. 13, March 4, i66f.

4 See supra 175, and Ludlow's
Memoirs, ii. 495 : 'If I may guesse of
the rest by the person whom I heare
proposed to bee employed by them,
to witt the Lord Roberts, it's the
honestest party of those about the
King that have now got the power
into their hands, this Lord Roberts
beeing a sollid, sobre person/
October, 1667. He was at this time

of King Charles II. 481

who was a sullen and morose man, believed to be severely CHAP. XII.
just, and as wise as a cynical humour could allow him to
be 1. The manner of removing the duke of Ormond will
give a particular character of the king's temper. He sent
lord Arlington to him for his commission. The duke of
Ormond said he had received it from the king's own hand,
and he would go and deliver it to him. When he carried
it to the king, he denied he had sent him any such message.
Two days after that, lord Arlington was sent again with
the same message : and he had the same answer, and the
king disowned it again to him. So the king declared in
the privy council the change of the government of Ireland,
and made Robarts lord-lieutenant 2. And it flew abroad as
a piece of news. The duke of Ormond hearing that, came
to the king in great wrath, to expostulate upon it ; and
the king denied the whole thing, and so sent him away:
but he sent for Fitzpatrick, who had married his sister, and
who told me the whole story, and sent him to the duke of
Ormond to tell him the king had denied the matter,
though it was true, for he observed he was in such a heat,
that he was afraid he might have said indecent things :
and he was resolved not to fall out with him : for, though
his affairs made it necessary to change the government of
Ireland, yet he would still be kind to him, and continue
him lord steward. Radnor did not continue long in Ire-
land : he was cynical in the whole administration, and
uneasy to the king in every thing : and in one of his
peevish humours he writ to the king that he had but one
thing to ask of him, which if it might be granted, he should
never ask another, and that was, to be discharged of his

Keeper of the Privy Seal. See Lady * How does that hinder wisdom ?

Russell to Lord W. Russell, Letters S.

of Lady Russell (1680), i. 62. 'Lord 2 According to Carte's account,

Radnor was sent for on Sunday to Life of Ormond, iv. 351 ^Clar. Press),

the Council, but he said he must Burnet's statements, founded of

serve God before the king, and course upon hearsay, are very

desired to be excused, as my author erroneous,
says/

VOL. I. I 1

482

The History of the Reign

CHAP. XII. employment. The lord Berkeley l succeeded him, who was
~267 brother to the lord Fitzharding, and from small beginnings

May, 1670. had risen up to the greatest posts a subject was capable
of. In the war he was governor of Exeter for the king,
and one of his generals. He was named by him governor
to the duke of York. He was now made lord-lieutenant
of Ireland, and was afterwards sent ambassador to France,
and plenipotentiary to Nimeguen. He was a bold assuming
man in whom it appeared with how little true judg-
ment courts distribute favours and honours. He had
a positive way of undertaking and determining in every
thing, and looked fierce and big : but was both a very weak
and a very proud man, and corrupt without shame or
decency 2.

The court delivered itself up to vice 3 : so the house of
commons lost all respect in the nation, for they gave still
all the money that was asked 4. Yet those who opposed the
court carried one great point, that a committee should be
named to examine the accounts of the money that was given
during the Dutch war 5. It was carried that they should be

1 'My Lord John Berkeley is to
go immediately as Lord Lieutenant
into Ireland in the place of My Lord
Roberts, who is as weary of the
Imployment as the Imployment is
of him.' Arlington's Letters, ii. 290 ;
Carte's Ormond, iv. 355. In April,
1671, Marvell tells us ' Barclay is
still Lieutenant of Ireland ; but he
was forced to come over to pay ten
thousand pounds rent to his Land-
lady Cleveland.' See infra, f. 397.
John, Lord Berkeley of Stratton, was
succeeded in Ireland by the Earl of
Essex in August, 1672 ; he died in
1678. Sir Charles Berkeley (supra
181) was created Viscount Fitz-
harding in July, 1663.

2 I have read some letters of his,
which show him to be a man of no
mean parts, though of very loose
principles ; the letters were written

to Long, secretary to Charles II ;
both before and after his father's
death. They are in the custody of
Sir Robert Long of Wilts. O. See
his letters to Clarendon, and Claren-
don's character of him, Clarendon
State Papers, iii, Supplement Ixxiv.

3 Sir G. Carteret told the king ' the
necessity of having at least a show
of religion in the government, and
sobriety.' Seenote,sw/>ra473. Pepys,
July 27, 1667 ; id. Sept. 23, 1667.

* ' We are all venal cowards, ex-
cept some few.' Marvell.

5 In 1 665, after a sum 0^1,250,000
had been voted, a proviso, suggested
by Downing, was carried by the wish
of the king and against the opinion
of Clarendon that the money thus
raised should be applicable to the
purposes of the war only. In
December, 1666, a proviso was in-

of King Charles II.

483

all men who were out of the house. Lord Brereton was CHAP. XII.
the chief of them, and had the chair. He was a philoso-
phical man, and was all his life long in search of the philo-
sopher's stone, by which he neglected his own affairs; but
was a man of great integrity, and was not to be gained by
the flatteries, hopes, or threatenings of the court. Sir
William | Turner was another of the committee, who had MS. i34.
been lord mayor of London the former year, under whose
wise and just administration the rebuilding of the city
advanced so fast, that he would have been chosen lord
mayor for the ensuing year, if he had not declined it.
Pierpoint was likewise of this committee : so was sir James
Langham, a very weak man, famed only for his readiness
of speaking florid Latin, which he had attained to a degree
beyond any man of the age ; but he was become a pedant
with it, and his style was too poetical, and full of epithets
and figures 1.

I name sir George Savile last, because he deserves
a more copious character2. He rose afterwards to be

serted in the Poll Bill, appointing
a commission of Lords and Commons,
without power to impose an oath, to
inspect and thoroughly examine the
expenditure of former grants. Com-
mons' Journals, ix. 100. Marvell,
Prose Works, ii. 200, 202, 205. ' The
great proviso passed the House of
Parliament yesterday, which makes
the king and court mad, the king
having given orders to my Lord
Chamberlain to send to the Play-
houses and brothels to bid all the
parliament men that were there to go
to the parliament presently.' Pepys,
Dec. 8, 1666. See the account drawn
up by Pepys, Oct. 10, 1666, where
he makes out a sum of £2,500,000
totally unaccounted for. Parlia-
ment was prorogued, but after
Clarendon's fall the committee named
in the text was formed with power
to examine upon oath. Their re-

port, which laid bare a deficiency
of /C i, 500,000, was presented by
Brereton on Oct. 26, 1669. Commons'
Journals, ix. 101. It is quoted by
Ralph and in the H. M. C. Rep. viii.
128. It led to the suspension from
the House of Commons, by 100 to 97,
of Carteret, Treasurer to the Admi-
ralty, for issuing money without legal
warrant. Hallam, ii. 359 (sm. ed.).

1 Pierrepont (supra 21) was second
son of Robert, first Viscount New-
ark. Langham was one of the
London citizens who waited on
Charles II at the Hague, when he
was knighted. He died in 1699.
Other members of the committee
were C. Osborn, Dunston, Tomson,
and Gregory. Marvell, ii. 230.
Turner was in the chair when Pepys
attended the committee July 3,
1668.

2 'A man of incomparable wit.'

I 1 2

484

The History of the Reign

CHAP. XII. viscount, earl, and marquis of Halifax. He was a man of
a great and ready wit, full of life, and very pleasant, much
turned to satire l. He let his wit run much on matters of
religion, so that he passed for a bold and determined
atheist ; though he often protested to me he was not one ;
and said he believed there was not one in the world. He
confessed he could not swallow down every thing that
divines imposed on the world. He was a Christian in sub-
mission, and he believed as much as he could, and he
hoped God would not lay it to his charge if he could not
'digest iron, as an ostrich did, nor take into his belief things
that must burst him : if he had any scruples, they were net
sought for, nor cherished by him ; for he never read an
atheistical book. a These were his excuses, but I could not
quite believe him; yeta in a fit of sickness I knew him
268 very much touched with a sense of religion. I was then
oft with him : he seemed full of good purposes : but they
went off with his sickness. He was always talking of
morality and friendship. He was punctual in all payments,
and just in all his private dealings ; but with relation to
the public he went backwards and forwards, and changed
sides so often, that in conclusion no side trusted him. He
seemed full of commonwealth notions, yet he went in to
the worst part of king Charles's reign. He was out of
measure vain and ambitious. The liveliness of his imagin-

a Bowyer's transcript.

North's Life of Lord Keeper Guil-
ford, 351. Reresby describes him
as, 'considering all, the greatest in
parts I ever knew,' 191, 231. Henry
Sidney says, ten years later, ' Essex
and Halifax are of that reputation
that nobody can blame them for any
one action in their whole lives.'
Diary, July 17, 1679. In Mrs. Ady's
Sacharissa he appears in a most
amiable light. Besides his brilliant
intellectual gifts, he was remarkable
for sober good sense, political
honour, and chivalrous adherence

to friends at a time when these
qualities were particularly rare. See
his correspondence with his brother
Henry Savile (Camd. Soc.).

1 I remember Burnet once made
a very long impertinent speech in
the House of Lords, for prohibiting
the use of French salt ; which the
marquis desired the House would
excuse, it being none of that salt
which seasoned all things ; if it had,
he was sure the bishop would have
spoken more to the purpose, though
possibly less in quantity. D.

of King Charles II. 485

ation was always too hard for his judgment. A severe CHAP. XII.
jest was preferred by him to all arguments whatsoever ;
and he was endless in consultations. For when after much
discourse a point was settled, if he could find a new jest to
make even that which was suggested by himself seem
ridiculous, he could not hold, but would study to raise the
credit of his wit, though it made others call his judgment
in question 1. When he talked to me as a philosopher of
his contempt of the world, I asked him what he meant, to
be getting so many new titles, which I called the hanging
himself about with bells and tinsel. He had no other
excuse for it but this, that, since the world were such fools
as to value those matters, a man must be a fool for com-
pany : he considered them but as rattles : yet rattles please
children : so these might be of use to his family. His
heart was much set on raising his family : but though he
made a vast estate for them, he buried two of his sons him-
self, and almost all his grandchildren. The son that sur-
vived was an honest man, but far inferior to him, which
appeared the more sensibly because he affected to imitate
him ; but the distance was too wide. I do not remember
who besides these were of that committee, that, because it
sat in Brookhouse, was called by the name of that house.

The court was much troubled to see an inquiry of this Report,
kind set on foot. It was said the king was basely treated, °^626'
when all his expense was to be looked into. On the other
hand it was answered that the parliament did not look into
his revenue, but only to the distribution of that treasure

1 In the House of Lords he affected ridicule. In King James's time he

to conclude all his discourses with told his lady he was sorry he must

a jest, though the subject were never part with her, but he designed to

so serious, and if it did not meet turn Papist. She said, she hoped he

with the applause he expected, would would consider better of it, but if

be extremely out of countenance and he did, where was the necessity of

silent, till an opportunity offered to parting from her? He said, because

retrieve the approbation he thought he was resolved to be a priest, and

he had lost ; but was never better having considered the matter fully,

pleased than when he was turning thought it was much better to be a

Bishop Burnet and his politics into coachman than a coach-horse. D.

486

The History of the Reign

CHAP. XII. that was trusted to him for carrying on the war l. I was
told that, after all the most shameful items that could be
put into an account, there was no account offered for about
8oo,ooo/. ; but I was not then in England : so I was very
imperfectly informed as to this matter. The chief men
that promoted this were taken off, (as the word then was
for corrupting members,) in which the court made so great
a progress, that it was thought the king could never have
been prevailed on to part with a parliament so much
practised on, and where every man's price was known ;
for as a man rose in his credit in the house, he raised his
price, and expected to be treated accordingly. In all this
inquiry the carelessness and luxury of the court came to be
269 so much exposed, that the king's spirit was much sharpened
upon it2. All the flatterers about him magnified foreign

1 Sir William Temple writing to
Bridgeman, Nov. 2, 1668, makes
several suggestions for raising sup-
plies without appealing more than
was necessary to Parliament ; the
disposal of quit rents and chimney
money, the reduction of the in-
terest paid to the bankers from ten
to eight per cent., and the resump-
tion of crown lands, are among
them. The decay of trade at this
time was so serious as to demand
the appointment of a special com-
mittee to ascertain its causes. See
their minutes, H. M. C. Rep. viii.
133. Land was a drug in the market.
Portland MSS., id. xiv. App. ii. 311.

2 ' He (sc. the king) and the keeper
spoke of nothing but to have money.
. . . The House was thin and obse-
quious. They voted at first they
would supply him, according to his
occasions, Nemine, as it was re-
marked, contradicente ; but few af-
firmatives, rather a silence as of men
ashamed and unwilling. Sir R.
Howard, Seymour, Temple, Car, and
Hollis, openly took leave of their

former party, and fell to head the
king's business.' Marvell to William
Ramsden, Nov. 28, 1670. ' Never-
theless, such was the number of the
constant courtiers increased by the
apostate patriots, who were bought
off for that turn, some at six, others
ten, one at fifteen thousand pounds
in money, besides what offices, lands,
and reversions to others, that it is
a mercy they gave not away the
whole land and liberty of England.'
Id. Aug. 6, 1671. See The Seasonable
Argument &c. (ascribed to Marvell),
Flagelhim Parliamentarium and the
anonymous Alarum with the char-
acters therein of the leading men,
and infra, f. 382. Col. St. P. Dom.
1668-9, 541. ' The House of Com-
mons is a beast not to be understood,
it being impossible to know before-
hand the success almost of any small
plain thing, there being so many to
think and speak to any business, and
they of so uncertain minds and in-
terests and passions.' Pepys, Dec-
19, 1666.

of King Charles II. 487

governments, where the princes were absolute, that in CHAP. XII.
France more particularly. Many, to please him, said it
was a very easy thing to shake off the restraints of law, if
the king would but set about it. The crown of Denmark
was elective, and subject to a senate, and yet was in one
day, without any visible force, changed to be both
hereditary and absolute, no rebellion nor convulsion of state
following on it. The king loved the project in general,
but would not give himself the trouble of laying or
rnanaging it ; and therefore till his affairs were made easier,
and the prospect grew clearer, he resolved to keep all
things close within himself, and went on in the common
maxim, to balance party against party, and by doing
popular things to get money of his parliament, under the
pretence of supporting the triple alliance. So money-bills
passed easily in the house of commons, which by a strange
reverse came to be opposed in the house of lords ; who MS. 135.
began to complain that the money-bills came up so thick,
that it was said there was no end of their giving ; end
signifying purpose as well as a measure, this passed as
a severe jest at that time. It is true sir John Coventry
made a gross reflection on the king's amours. He was one
of those who struggled much against the giving money.
The common method is, after those who oppose such bills
fail in the main vote, the next thing they endeavour is to
lay the money on funds that will be unacceptable, and will
prove deficient. So these men proposed the laying a tax
on the playhouses, which in so dissolute a time were
become nests of prostitution, and the stage was defiled
beyond all example, Dryden, the great master at dramatic
poesy, being a monster of immodesty and of impurity of
all sorts. This was opposed by the court : it was said the
players were the king's servants, and a part of his pleasure.
Coventry asked, whether did the king's pleasure lie among
the men or the women that acted ? This was carried with
great indignation to the court. It was said this was the
first time that the king was personally reflected on : if it

488 The History of the Reign

CHAP. XII. was passed over, more of the same kind would follow, and
it would grow a fashion to talk so. It was therefore fit to
take such severe notice of this, that nobody should dare to
talk at that rate for the future. The duke of York told me
he said all he could to the king to divert him from the
resolution he took ; which was to send some of the guards,
and watch in the streets where sir John lodged, and leave
a mark upon him. Sands and O' Brian 1, and some others,
270 went ; and as Coventry was going home they drew about

Oct. 1670. him : he stood up to the wall, and snatched the flambeau
out of his servant's hand, and with that in the one hand,
and his sword in the other, he defended himself so well,
that he got more credit by it than by all the actions of his
life. He wounded some of them, but was soon disarmed :
and then they cut his nose to the bone, to teach him to
remember what respect he owed to the king : and so they
left him, and went back to the duke of Monmouth's, where
O'Brian's arm was dressed. That matter was executed by
orders from the duke of Monmouth : for which he was
severely censured, because he lived then in professions of
friendship with Coventry ; so that his subjection to the
king was not thought an excuse for directing so vile an
attempt on his friend without sending him secret notice of
what was designed. Coventry had his nose so well needled
up, that the scar was scarce to be discerned 2. This put the

1 O'Brian was son of the Earl of himself a zealous Protestant, and
Inchequin. He was in trouble again was much engaged in the Whig
in 1678. Marvell, May n, 1678. party, but in his will recommended
See the account of this affair, which his soul to the intercession of the
took place in October, 1670, in Blessed Virgin, and desired his body
Marvell's undated letter to Ramsden might be buried in Somerset House
(Grosart), ii. 389. Marvell notices Chapel, and left most of his estate
another instance of this lawlessness: to the English Jesuits at St. Omer's ;
' Doubtless you have heard before to the great surprise of all his family
this time, how Monmouth, Albemarle, (as Lord Weymouth told me, who
Dunbane, and seven or eight gentle- was his near relation, and present
men, fought with the watch, and at the opening of it), there having
killed a poor bedle.' See also Cal. never been the least suspicion during
St. P. Dom. 1666-7, 263. his life. The will was afterwards

2 Sir J. Coventry always professed set aside by law. D.

of King Charles II. 489

house of commons in a furious uproar1. They passed CHAP. XII.
a bill of banishment against the actors of it; and put ja
a clause in it that it should not be in the king's power to
pardon them2. This gave great advantages to all those
that opposed the court, and was often remembered and
much improved by all the angry men. At this time the
names of the Court and Country party, which till now had
seemed to be forgotten, were again revived.

When the city was pretty well rebuilt, they began to
take care of the churches, which had lain in ashes some
years ; and in that time conventicles abounded in all the
parts of the city3. It was thought hard to hinder men
from worshipping God any way as they could, when there
were no churches, nor ministers to look after them. But
now they began to raise churches of boards, till the public
allowance should be raised towards the building the
churches. These they called tabernacles, and they fitted
them up with pews and galleries as churches. So now an

1 This was in January, 167^. Monmouth's that of assassins. O.
Marvell says at that time, ' The True, but Sir John's uncle, the cele-
Court is at the highest pitch of want brated Sir William Coventry, on being
and luxury, and the people full of informed that there was a design to
discontent.' ridicule him, by some farcical re-

2 And to perpetuate the memory presentation in a play, told Mr.
of this mean outrage, there is a pro- Killigrew ' to tell his actors, who-
vision in the Act to make it felony ever they were, that he would not
without benefit of clergy, maliciously complain to my Lord Chamberlain,
to maim or disfigure any person in which was too weak, nor get him
the manner there mentioned. See, beaten, as Sir Charles Sedley is said
in the State Trials, that of one Coke, to have done, but that he would
convicted upon this Act. The words cause his nose to be cut.' Pepys,
spoken by Coventry were indiscreet March 6, i66f. R.

and very indecent in the place where 3 And throughout the country,

he was, and the House might well causing great alarm. Fleming Papers,

have censured him for them ; but Feb. 9, i6ff . ' On Friday the king

this method of punishing him was in Council gave order for the pulling

of the highest concernment to both down of the seats and pulpits in all

Houses ; and unnoticed, might have the meeting houses in London,

been of the most dangerous conse- Bristol, and other places.' Id. June

quence with regard to their privi- 14, 1670. Sir W. Temple remarks

leges. The Duke of York's behaviour upon the impression of the king's

in this matter was like that of a great weakness created by the activity of

man, and the king's and Duke of the conventicles.

490

The History of the Reign

CHAP. XII. act was proposed reviving the former act against con-

~~ venticles \ with some new clauses in it. One was very

1670. ' extraordinary, that if any doubt should arise concerning the

meaning of any part of this act, it was to be determined in

the sense that was the most contrary to conventicles, it

being the intention of the house to repress them in the

most effectual manner possible. The other was, the laying

a heavy fine on such justices of the peace as should not

execute the law, when informations were brought them 2.

1 The second Conventicle Act re-
ceived the royal assent on April n,
1670. A Bill to continue the Act of
March, 1664 (see supra 366, note),
whose period of three years had run
out, passed the Commons and went
to the Lords on April 28, 1668 : it
was read a first time in the Lords on
the apth, but, in spite of the remon-
strance of the Commons on May 4,
never reached a second reading.
Journals of the Lords and Commons.
Charles was forced to issue a pro-
clamation on Nov. 4, 1669, for the
suppression of conventicles and for
putting in force all laws against
Nonconformists. See also Marvell,
March 7, i66£. The present Act
was famous for the proviso (Parl.
Hist. iv. 447) sent down by the
Lords and rejected by the Commons,
which would have restored the king
' to all civil and ecclesiastical pre-
rogatives which his ancestors had
enjoyed at any time since the con-
quest. There never was so com-
pendious a piece of universal tyranny.
... The Parliament was never so
embarrassed beyond recovery. We
are all venal cowards except some
few.' Marvell, April 14, 1670, and
March 10, i6f$. The Lords'
amendments were all in favour of
leniency; e.g. reducing the penalty
by one-half, abolishing imprison-
ment, restricting penalties to indoor

meetings, granting the power of
appeal, &c. H. M. C. Rep. viii. 142.
See the provisions of the Act in the
Statutes at Large, iii. 332, and Besse,
Sufferings of the Quakers, i. Pref. xx.
2 Another very significant pro-
vision was that constables with-
holding information were to be fined
£5, and Justices of the Peace refusing
to convict were to pay £100 in each
case. From Seth Ward's letters to
Sheldon (supra 343, note) it appears
that it had been found almost im-
possible in his diocese to carry out the
former laws, through this sympathy of
the Justices with the offenders. In-
formers were now to receive half the
fine. By 1671 ' informer against con-
venticles ' appears to have become a
recognized profession. Cal. St. P.
Dom. 1671, 106 ; Luttrell's Diary.
See also Marvell, March 10, 1670;
Kenyan Papers, H. M. C. Rep. xiv.
App. iv. 90 ; Cal. St. P. Dom. 1666-7,
206 ; 1668-9, 419 and passim. The
vigilance of the government extended
to girls' schools, id. 1670, 18. See
the remonstrance of John Lerie. id.
151 ; John Hicks's Sufferings of the
Fanaticks in Devon in 1670, 1671,
Somers Tracts, vii. 586 ; Besse's
Sufferings of the Quakers. The re-
cords of the Baptist congregation
at Broadmead, near Bristol (105, 223,
226), contain amusing accounts of
the devices resorted to for evading

of King Charles II. 491

Upon this, many who would not be the instruments of such CHAP.XII.
severities left the bench, and would sit there no longer.
This act was executed in the city very severely in Starlin[g]'s
mayoralty l ; and put things in such disorder, that many of
the trading men of the city began to talk of removing with
their stock over to Holland : but the king ordered a stop to 271
be put to further severities. Many of the sects either dis-
continued their meetings, or held them very secretly with
small numbers, and not in the hours of the public worship ;
yet informers were encouraged, and were every where at
work. The behaviour of the quakers was more particular,
and had something in it that looked bold. They met at
the same place and at the same hour as before ; and when
they were seized, none of them would go out of the way :
they went altogether to prison : they staid there till they
were dismissed, for they would not petition to be set at
liberty, nor would they pay the fines set on them, nor so
much as the jail fees, calling these the wages of un-
righteousness. And as soon as they were let out, they
went to their meeting-houses again : and when they found
these were shut up by order, they held their meetings on
the streets, before the doors of those houses. They said
they would not disown or be ashamed of their meeting
together to worship God : but, in imitation of Daniel, they
would do it the more publicly, because they were forbidden
doing it. Some called this obstinacy, while others called
it firmness. But by it they carried their point, for the
government | grew weary of dealing with so much per- MS. 136.
verseness, and so began with letting them alone 2.

the Act. See also, for another in- therefore angry. ' The Quakers,

stance of passive resistance, Cal. the most incorrigible sinners that I

S/. P. Dom, 1671, 419. know.' Kenyan MSS., Cal. St. P.

1 Sir Samuel Starling's mayoralty Dom. 1660-1, 585-587, &c. From
was in 1669. the Broadmead Records, 45, 46, and

2 The dread and repugnance against Baxter's Narrative, it appears that
the Quakers was excited apparently Papists went about in Quaker dis-
by nothing but the unusualness of guise, which increased suspicion,
their language and tenets. Every Their language was often violent, or
one was puzzled and every one was at least indiscreet. Marvell, ii. 307;

492

The History of the Reign

CHAP. xil. The king had by this time got all the money that he
expected from the house of commons, and that after great
practice on both lords and commons. Many bones were
thrown in, to create differences between the two houses,
to try if by both houses insisting on them the money-
bills might fall. But to prevent all trouble from the lords,
the king was advised to go and be present at all their
debates. Lord Lauderdale valued himself to me on this
advice, which he said he gave. At first the king sat
decently in the chair, on the throne ; a that was a great
restraint on the freedom of debate, which had some effect
for a while : but afterwards many of the lords seemed to
speak with the more boldness, because, they said, one
heard it to whom they had no other access but in that

a though even struck out.

Cal St. P. Dom. 1662-4, 175, 649.
The average ignorance about, and
dislike of them, is amusingly illus-
trated in the Verney MSS., Dec. 13,
1666, when Sir Ralph Verney, a
man of sound sense and sweet dis-
position, warns his son against the
Quakeress who is to nurse his wife.
He is not to permit her to be alone
with her patient, for ' such persons
are apt to instill theire ill principles
into the mindes of weak persons.'
' I know not this Quaker, but I am
sure they are a dangerous sort of
people, and those that coloure theire
designs with a show of religion are
ever the most dangerous.' See
Ranke, "iii. 580; Cal. St. P. Dom.
1662-4, 372> 444? and especially the
Lauderdale Papers, ii. 180. It was
during this period of senseless per-
secution (of which see examples in
Cal. St. P. Dom. 1666-7, 94, 270;
1671, 450) that a great advance was
made in constitutional liberty in the
case of the Quakers, William Penn
and William Mead ; when the right

of juries to find verdicts against the
direction of the Bench was estab-
lished, September, 1670. Marvell,
Nov. 28, 1670. 'The Jury not finding
them guilty, as the Recorder and
Mayor would have had them, they
were kept without meat or drink
some three days, till almost starved,
but would not alter their verdict ; so
fined and imprisoned.' One of their
number, Bushell, then sued a writ
of Habeas Corpus from the Court of
Common Pleas, and on the return
that he had been committed for find-
ing a verdict against the evidence
was discharged by Vaughan, Lord
Chief Justice, who held the ground
to be insufficient. The judges, how-
ever, by eight to four, remanded them
to Newgate on the ground that the
cause, being a criminal one, was not
cognizable by the Common Pleas,
but in the King's Bench. The victory
was none the less won. See Besse,
Sufferings of the Quakers (1753), i.
416-426 ; Hallam, History of England,
iii. 8 (_sm. ed.).

of King Charles II. 493

place ; and they took the more liberty because what they CHAP. XI I.
said could not be reported wrong. The king, who was
often weary of time, and did not know how to get round
the day, liked the going to the house, as a pleasant
diversion. So he went constantly1: and he quickly left
the throne, and stood by the fire; which drew a crowd
about him. that broke all the decency of that house. For
before that time every lord sat regularly in his place : but
the king's coming broke the order of their sitting as
became senators. The king's going thither had a much
worse effect : for he became a common solicitor, not only 272
in public affairs, but even in private matters of justice. He
would in a very little time have gone round the house,
and spoke to every man that he thought worth speaking
to ; and he was apt to do that upon the solicitation of any
of the ladies in favour, or of any that had credit with him.
He knew well on whom he could prevail : so being once
in a matter of justice desired to speak to the earl of Essex
and lord Holies, he said they were stiff and sullen men :
but when he was next desired to solicit two others, he
undertook to do it, and said, ' they are men of no con-
science, so I will take the government of their conscience
into my own hands.' Yet when any of the lords told him
plainly that they could not vote as he desired, he seemed
to take it well from them. When the act against conven-
ticles was in that house, Wilkins argued long against it.
The king was much for having it pass, not that he intended
to execute it, but he was glad to have that body of men
at mercy, and to force them to concur in the design for
a general toleration 2. He spoke to Wilkins not to oppose

1 See the extremely interesting among them, and says it is better

account of this in Marvell's letter to than going to a play.'
Ramsden of April 14, 1670. Marvell 2 Besides the second Conventicle

intimates that the king's object was Act, which received the royal assent

to neutralize the Duke of York's in- on April n, 1670, there was a Bill

fluence. He was solemnly thanked for 'an additional Act to prevent

by the Lords for the honour he did and suppress seditious conventicles,'

them. After the Roos Act ' the king which passed the Commons on April

has ever since continued his session 5, 1671, and a Bill against Popery,

494 The History of the Reign

CHAP. XII. it. He answered, he thought it an ill thing both in con-
science and policy : therefore, both as he was an Englishman
and a bishop, he was bound to oppose it. The king then
desired him not to come to the house while it depended.
He said, by the law and constitution of England, and by
his majesty's favour, he had a right to debate and vote :
and he was neither afraid nor ashamed to own his opinion
in that matter, and to act pursuant to it. So he went on :
and the king was not offended with his freedom. But
though he bore with such a frank refusing to comply with
his desire, yet if any had made him such a general answer
as led him to believe they intended to be compliant, and
had not in all things done as he expected, he called that
a juggling with him, and he was apt to speak hardly of
them on that account, of which bishop Ward felt a very
heavy share. No sooner was the king at ease, and had
his fleet put in good case, and his stores and magazines
well furnished, than he immediately fell a negotiating with
France, both to ruin Holland and to subvert the govern-
ment of England. The Brook-house business, as well as
the burning his fleet, stuck as deep as any thing could go
into his heart. He resolved to revenge the one, and to
free himself from the apprehensions of the other's returning
upon him : though the house of commons were so far prac-
tised on, that the report of Brook-house was let fall, and
that matter was no more insisted on. Yet he abhorred
273 the precedent, and the discoveries that had been made

upon it.

1670. The prince of Orange came over to him in the winter
[I6J691. He was then in the twentieth year of his age,

sent to the Lords in March. Marvell, but it was retained by the odds of

March n, 167^. They were lost by two voices.' Marvell, April 6, 1671.

the successive prorogations of Par- Portland MSS. iii., H. M. C. Rep.

liament from April 26, 1671 to Feb. xiv. App. ii. 322, 323.
4, 167^, rendered necessary through x Burnet antedates this visit. On

the controversy with the Lords on Nov. 21, 1670, Arlington wrote, 'The

amendments to money bills. ' The Prince of Orange hath been now

Lords read [the Conventicle Bill] there three weeks amongst us, much

once, and divided for throwing it out, to the satisfaction of the king, and all

of King Charles II. 495

near being of full age : so he came over both to see how CHAP. XII.
the king intended to pay the great debt that he owed
him, which had been contracted by his father on his
account, and likewise to try what offices the king would
do in order to his advancement to the stadtholdership 1.
The king treated him civilly. He assured him he would
pay the debt, but did not lay down any method of doing
it : so these were only good words. He tried the prince,
as he himself told me, in the point of religion : he
spoke of all the protestants as a factious body, broken
among themselves ever since they had broke off from the
main body ; and wished that he would take more pains,
and look into these things better, and not be led by his
Dutch blockheads. The prince told all this to Zulesteyn,
his natural uncle. They were both amazed at it, and
wondered how the king could trust so great a secret as
his being a papist to so young a person. The prince told
me that he never spoke of this to any other person till
after his [the king's] death : but he carried it always in his
own mind, and could not hinder himself from judging of all
the king's intentions after that ; nor did he, upon his not
compliance with that proposition, expect any real assist-
ance of the king, but general intercessions which signified
nothing : and that was all he obtained.

| So far have I carried on the thread of the affairs of MS. 137.

that have seen him; being a young dows of the chambers of the maids

man of the most extraordinary of honour, and had got into some of

Understanding and Parts, besides their apartments, had they not been

his quality and birth that makes him timely rescued.' He returned to the

shine the better.' Arlington's Letters, Hague in February, 1671.

ii. 311. Evelyn, on Nov. 4, says, 1 And 'to pretend to the Lady

'He has a manly, courageous, wise Mary.' His letter of instructions,

countenance, resembling his mother dated June 20, 1670, to his precursor

and the Duke of Gloucester.' Reresby, Dr. Rompf, tells him to put himself

83, relates a curious incident of the into the hands of Arlington alone in

visit. The king and Buckingham, it the matter of the payment of the

appears, did their best to make the debt. There is nothing in them

prince drunk, and succeeded so far about the stadtholdership. Original

that ' amongst other expressions of Letters of King William to Charles II,

his frolicsomeness he broke the win- Lord Arlington, dr., 1704, p. 3.

496

The History of the Reign

CHAP. XII. England down from the peace of Breda to the year
[i6]7o, in which the negotiation with the court of France
was set on foot1. I am not sure that every thing is told
in a just order, because I was all the while very much
retired from the world and from company. But I am
confident I have given a true representation of things,
since I had most of these matters from persons who knew
them well, and who were not like to deceive me.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE ROYAL SUPREMACY IN SCOTLAND. FAILURE

OF LEIGHTON'S ATTEMPT TO CONCILIATE
THE COVENANTERS.

BUT now I return to my own country, where the same
spirit appeared in the administration.

The king was now upon measures of moderation and
comprehension : so these were also pursued in Scotland.
Leighton was the only person among the bishops that
declared for these methods : and he made no step without
talking it over to me. A great many churches were already
vacant. They fell off entirely from all the episcopal clergy in
the western counties : and a set of hot fiery young teachers
went about among the people, inflaming them more and
more. So it was necessary to find a remedy for this2.

1 These negotiations had been
going on since the Spring of 1668.
They may be read in detail in Mig-
net's great work, Negotiations rela-
tives, &c., already referred to. The
treaty was, as Marvell expressed it,
' a work of darkness ' (Popery and
Arbitrary Power, Grosart, 266).

2 The great increase in conventicles,
which was now observed, ' hath been
encouraged by the general report
there is here of the avowdnes of
conventicles in England and Irland

... if there be slackning of the
reignes there it will be hard for us
to hold them strait here. ... I am,
in my private opinion, for a qualified
toleration, but I wold have it given
and not taken.' Kincardine to
Lauderdale, March 2, i66f. Tweed-
dale writes on Feb. 23, i66f, in the
same tone. ' The starting up to
preach and conventicle was upon
information . . . that it was now fitt
to try if the State would suffer that
liberty was given in England.'

of King Charles II. 497

Leighton proposed that a treaty should be set on foot, CH. XIII.
in order to the accommodating our differences, and for
changing the laws that had carried the episcopal authority 274
much higher than any of the bishops themselves put in
practice. He saw both church and state were rent :
religion was like to be lost : popery, or rather barbarity,
was like to come in upon us: and therefore he proposed
such a scheme as he thought might have taken in the
soberest men of presbyterian principles ; reckoning that if
the schism could be once healed, and order be once
restored, it might be easy to bring things into such a
management, that the concessions then to be offered
should do no great hurt in present, and should die with
that generation. He observed the extraordinary conces-
sions made by the African church to the Donatists, who
were every whit as wild and extravagant as our people
were. Therefore he went indeed very far to the extenu-
ating the episcopal authority : but he thought it would be
easy afterwards to recover what seemed necessary to be
yielded at present.

He proposed that the church should be governed by the
bishops and their clergy mixing together in the church
judicatories, in which the bishop should act only as presi-
dent, and be determined by the majority of his presbyters,
both in matters of jurisdiction and ordination : and that
the presbyterians should be allowed, when they sat down
first in these judicatories, to declare that their sitting under
a bishop was submitted to by them only for peace sake,
with a reservation of their opinion with relation to any
such presidency : and that no negative vote should be
claimed by the bishop : that bishops should go to the
churches where such as were to be ordained were to serve,
and hear and discuss any exceptions that were made to
them, and ordain them with the concurrence of the pres-
bytery : that such as were to be ordained should have
leave to declare their opinion, if they thought the bishop
was only the head of the presbyters. And he also

VOL. I. K k

498

The History of the Reign

CH. xill. proposed that there should be provincial synods, to sit in
course every third year, or oftener if the king should
summon them ; in which complaints of the bishops should
be received, and they should be censured accordingly.
The laws that settled episcopacy and the authority of a
national synod were to be altered according to this scheme.
To justify, or rather to excuse, these concessions, which
left little more than the name of a bishop, he said, as for
their protestation, it would be little minded and soon for-
gotten: the world would see the union that would be
again settled among us, and the protestation would lie
dead in the books, and die with those that made it : as
for the negative vote, bishops generally managed matters
so that they had no occasion for it : but if it should be
found necessary, it might be lodged in the king's name
275 with some secular person, who should interpose it as often
as the bishop saw it was expedient to use it. And if the
present race could be but laid in their graves in peace, all
those heats would abate, if not quite fall off. He also
thought it was a much decenter thing for bishops to go
upon the place where the minister was to serve, and to
ordain, after solemn fasting and prayer, than to huddle it
up at their cathedrals, with no solemnity, and scarce with
common decency. It seemed also reasonable that bishops
should be liable to censure, as well as other people, and
that in a fixed court, which was to consist of bishops and
deans, and two chosen from every presbytery. The liberty
offered to such as were to be ordained to declare their
opinion, was the hardest part of the whole : it looked like
the perpetuating a factious and irregular humour ; but few
would make use of it. All the churches in the gift of the
king or of the bishops would go to men of other principles.
But though some things of an ill digestion were at such
a time admitted, yet, if by these means the schism could
be once healed, and the nation again settled in a peaceable
state, the advantage of that would balance all that was

MS. 138. lost by | those abatements that were to be made in the

of King Charles II. 499

episcopal authority, which had been raised too high, and CH. xni.
to correct that was now to be let fall too low, if it were
not for the good that was to be hoped for from this
accommodation : for this came to be the word, as compre-
hension was in England. He proposed that a treaty might
be set on foot for bringing the presbyterians to accept of
those concessions. The earl of Kincardine was against all
treating with them : they were a trifling sort of dispu-
tatious people, that loved logic and sophistry. They
would fall into much wrangling, and would subdivide
among themselves : and the young and ignorant men
among them, that were accustomed to popular declama-
tions, would say, here was a bargain made to sell Christ's
kingdom and his prerogative. He therefore proposed, that
since we knew both their principles and their tempers, we
ought to carry the concessions as far as was either reason-
able or expedient, and pass these into laws : and then they
would submit to a settlement that was made, and that
could not be helped, more easily than give a consent
beforehand to any thing that seemed to entrench on that
which they called the liberty of the church. Leighton
did fully agree with him. But lord Lauderdale would
never consent to that. He said, a law that did so entirely
change the constitution of the church, when it came to be
passed and printed, would be construed in England as
a pulling down of episcopacy, unless he could have this
to say in excuse for it, that the presbyterians were willing 276
to come under that model. So he said, since the load of
what was to be done in Scotland would fall heaviest on
him, he would not expose himself so much as the passing
any such act must certainly do, till he knew what effects
would follow on it. So we were forced to try how to deal
with them in a treaty. I was sent to propose this scheme
to Hutchinson 1, who was esteemed the learnedest man

1 George Hutcheson, late minister other functions of their ministry by
at Edinburgh. He was among the the indulgence of June 7, 1669.
' outed' ministers who received per- Wodrow, ii. 133.
mission to preach and exercise the

K k 2

500 The History of the Reign

CH. XIII. among them : but I was only to try him, and to talk of it as
a notion of my own. He had married my cousin-germain,
and I had been long acquainted with him. He looked
on it as a project that would never take effect : so he
would not give his opinion about it. He said, when these
concessions were passed into laws, he would know what
he should think of them, but he was one of many; so
he avoided the engaging himself. The next thing under
consideration was, how to dispose of the many vacancies,
and how to put a stop to conventicles. Leighton pro-
posed that they should be kept still vacant, while the
treaty was on foot, and that the presbyterians should see
how much the government was in earnest in the design
of bringing them to serve in the church, when so many
places were kept open for them. The earl of Tweeddale
thought the treaty would run into a great length and to
many niceties, and would probably come to nothing in con-
clusion : so he proposed the granting the outed ministers
leave to go and serve in those parishes by an act of
the king's Indulgence1. Leighton was against this. He
thought nothing would bring on the presbyterians to a
treaty so much as the hopes of being again suffered to
return to their benefices ; whereas, if they were once
admitted to them, they would reckon they had gained
their point, and would grow more backward. I was
desired to go into the western parts, and to give a true
account of matters, as I found them there. So I went, as
in a visit to the duke of Hamilton, whose duchess was
a woman of great piety and great parts 2. She had much
credit among them, for she passed for a zealous presby-
terian, though she protested to me she never entered into
the points of controversy, and had no settled opinion about
forms of government ; only she thought their ministers
were good men, who kept the country in great quiet and
order : they were, she said, blameless in their lives, devout

1 See Lady Margaret Kennedy's letter of May i, 1669 (Bannatyne
Club). 2 gee supm !87.

of King Charles II. 501

in their way, and diligent in their labours. aThe people CH. xill.
were all in a phrenzy, and were in no disposition to any
treaty. The furiousest men among them were busy in
conventicles, inflaming them against all agreement : so she
thought that if the more moderate presbyterians were put 277
in vacant churches, the people would grow tamer, and be
taken out of the hands of the mad preachers, that were
then most in vogue. This would likewise create a con-
fidence in them : for they were now so possessed with
prejudices, as to believe that all that was proposed was
only an artifice to make them fall out among themselves,
and to deceive them at last. This seemed reasonable : and
she got many of the more moderate of them to come to
me, and they all talked in the same strain.

A strange accident happened to Sharp in July [i6]68. Jub'ir»
As he was going into his coach in full daylight, and the
bishop of Orkney with him, a man came up to the coach,
and discharged a pistol at him with a brace of bullets in
it 1 ; as the bishop was going up into the coach, he intended
to shoot through his cloak at Sharp as he was mounting
up : but the bullets stuck in the bishop of Orkney's arm,
and shattered it so, that, | though he lived some years after MS. 139-
that, they were forced to open it every year for a new
exfoliation. Sharp was so universally hated, that, though
this was done in full daylight, and on the high street, yet
nobody offered to seize on the assassin. So he walked off,
and went home, and shifted himself of an odd wig, which
he was not accustomed to wear, and came out, and walked
on the streets immediately 2. But Sharp had viewed him
that he believed was the person so narrowly, that he dis-
covered him afterwards, as shall be mentioned in its proper

a she said struck out.

1 July n, 1668. Wodrow, ii. 115. 2 'All imaginable industry is used

See the account also by the Provost and payns taken to discover it ; yett

of Edinburgh. Lauderdale Papers, the Archbishop whines still and

ii. 109. For the later proceedings speaks still of overturnings and re-

against James Mitchell see Wodrow volutions.' Tweeddale to Lauder-

and f. 413. dale, July 21, 1668.

502 The History of the Reign

CH. xill. place. I lived then much out of the world : yet I thought
— it decent to go and congratulate on this occasion. He was
much touched with it, and put on a shew of devotion upon
it. He said with a very serious look, My times are wholly
in thy hand, O thou the God of my life ! This was the
single expression savouring of piety that ever fell from him
in all the conversation that passed between him and me.
Proclamations were issued out with great rewards for dis-
covering the actor, but nothing followed on them. On this
occasion it was thought proper that he should be called to
court, and have some marks of the king's favour put on
him. He promised to make many good motions, and he
talked for a while like a changed man : and went out of
his way, as he was going to court, to visit me at my
parsonage house, and seemed resolved to turn to other
methods. The king, as he had a particular talent that way
when he had a mind to it, treated him with special
characters of favour and respect : but he made no proposi-
tions to the king, only in general terms he approved of the
methods of gentleness and moderation then in vogue.
278 When he came back to Scotland he moved in council
that an indulgence might be granted to some of the Public
Resolutioners, with some rules and restraints 1 ; such as,
that they should not speak or preach against episcopacy,
and that they should not admit to either of the sacraments
any of the neighbouring parishes without a desire from
their own ministers ; and that they should engage them-
selves to observe these rules. He knew that this proposi-
tion, for all the shew of moderation that was in it, could
have no effect : for the Resolutioners and the Protestors
had laid down their old disputes, and were resolved to
come under no discrimination on that account ; nor would
they engage to observe any limitations that should be laid
on them. They said the government might lay restraints
on them, and punish them if they broke through them, and

1 He was compelled to do this. Lauderdale MSS. 23,130. f. 42; 23,131,
f. 26.

of King Charles II. 503

they would obey them, or not, at their peril. But they CH. xiil.
laid down this for a maxim, that they had received a com-
plete ministry from Christ, and that the judicatories of the
church had only power to govern them in the exercise of
their function. If the king should lay any limitations on
them, they might obey these, as prudence should direct :
but they would not bind themselves up by any engage-
ment of their own. Burnet and his clergy, (for the diocese
of Glasgow is above the fourth part of all Scotland,) came
to Edinburgh full of high complaints, that the churches
were universally forsaken, and that conventicles abounded
in every corner of the country. A proclamation was upon April 8,
that issued out in imitation of the English act1, setting
a fine of 5o/. upon every landlord on whose grounds any
conventicle was held, which he might recover as he could
of those who were at any such conventicle. This was
plainly against law ; for the council had no power by their
authority to set arbitrary fines. It was pretended, on the
other hand, that the act of parliament that had restored
episcopacy had a clause in it recommending the execution
of that act to the privy council by all the best ways they
could think of. But the lawyers at the council-board said,
that in matter of property their power was certainly tied up
to the direction of the law: and the clause mentioned
related only to particular methods, but could not be con-
strued so far as this proclamation carried the matter. The
proclamation went out, but was never executed. It was
sent up to London, and had a shew of zeal ; and so was
made use of by the earl of Lauderdale, to bear down the
clamour that was raised against him and his party in
Scotland, as if they designed to pull down episcopacy.
The model of the county militia was now executed : and
about 20,000 horse and foot were armed and trained, 279
and cast into independent regiments and troops, who
were ail to be under such orders as the council issued
out. All this was against law: for the king had only

1 scil. the second Conventicle Act, supra 490; Wodrow, ii. 126.

504 The History of the Reign

CH. xin. a power upon an extraordinary occasion to raise and march
such a body of men as he should summon together, and
that at his own charge : but the converting this into
a standing militia, which carried with it a standing charge,
was thought a great stretch of prerogative. Yet it was
resolved on ; though great exceptions were made to it by
the lawyers, chiefly by sir John Nisbet, the king's advocate,
a man of great learning, both in law and in many other
things, chiefly in the Greek learning: he was a person of
great integrity, only he loved money too much : but he
always stood firm to the law1. The true secret of this
was, that lord Lauderdale was now pressing to get into the
management of the affairs of England, and he saw what
the court was aiming at : so he had a mind to make him-
self considerable by this, that he had in his hand a great
army, with a magazine of arms, and a stock of money laid
up in Scotland for any accident that might happen 2. So
all his creatures, and lady Dysart more than all the rest,
had this up in all companies, that none before him ever
dreamt how to make Scotland considerable to the king :
but now it began to make a great figure. An army,
a magazine, and a treasure, were words of a high sound ;

MS. 140. chiefly now that the | house of commons was like to grow so
intractable, that the duke of Buckingham despaired of
being able to manage them. He moved the dissolving the
parliament, and calling a new one, and thought the nation
would choose men less zealous for the church, who were all
against him. But the king v/ould not venture on it : he
knew the house of commons was either firm to him by
their own principles, or by his management they could be

1 Nisbet succeeded Sir John declare his conversion ; and it was

Fletcher (supra 191, note) in 1664, thought possible that civil war might

and was in turn replaced by George ensue. But, if Charles ever really

Mackenzie of Rosehaugh (' Bloody thought of using force, the idea

Mackenzie') in 1677. Omond's Lord speedily passed. Quarterly Review,

Advocates of Scotland. April, 1884, 437. As early as

3 The Treaty of Dover was in February, 1670, the ' fear of the

prospect ; it included a condition Scotch forces ' was spreading in

that Charles should sooner or later Parliament. Verney MSS.

of King Charles II. 505

made so, and therefore he would not run the risk of any CH. XIII.
new election. He had the dissenters much in his power,
by the severe laws under which they lay at his mercy : but
he did not know what influence they might have in elections,
and in a new parliament : these he knew were in their
hearts enemies to prerogative, which he believed they
would shew as soon as they got themselves to be delivered
from the laws that then put them in the king's power.
Lord Tweeddale was then at London : and he set on foot
a proposition, that came to nothing, but made so much
noise, and was of such importance, that it deserves to be
enlarged on. It was for the union of both kingdoms1.
The king liked it; because he reckoned that, at least for
his time, he would be sure of all the members that should 280
be sent up from Scotland. The duke of Buckingham
went in easily to a new thing : and lord keeper Bridgeman
was much for it. The lord Lauderdale pressed it vehe-
mently. It made it necessary to hold a parliament in
Scotland, where he intended to be the king's com-
missioner2. The earl of Tweeddale was for it on other
accounts, both to settle the establishment of the militia,
and to get some alterations made in the laws that related
to the church : but he really drove at the union, as a thing
which as he hoped might be brought about. Scotland was
even then under great uneasiness, though the king knew
the state of that kingdom : but when another king should

1 King William told the Earl of had not the good fortune to know

Jersey, that it was a standing maxim what would satisfy a Scotchman. D.

in the Stuart family (whatever 2 See Mackenzie, Memoirs, upon

advances they pretended to make this. The belief that Lauderdale

towards it), never to suffer a union wished for union does not seem

between the two kingdoms, though tenable in the face of his own letters,

in his opinion it would be an advan- He doubtless felt that in such a case,

tage ; for it could not be done with- instead of being viceroy with almost

out admitting a good number of unlimited power, he would become

Scotch members into both Houses, a mere official administrator. Lauder-

who must depend upon the crown dale Papers, ii. Both Charles and

for their subsistence ; but said he James wrote urgently in favour of

was not desirous the experiment union. Id. 159, 184, and Websier

should be made in his reign, for he MSS., Oct. 28, 1670.

506 The History of the Reign

CH. XIII. reign that knew not Joseph, (so he expressed it,) the nation
would be delivered up to favourites, and be devoured by
them. Rich provinces, like those that belonged to Spain,
could hold out long, even under oppression ; but a poor
country would be soon dispeopled, if much oppressed.
And if a king of deep designs against public liberty should
caress the Scots, he might easily engage them ; since
a poor country may be supposed willing to change their
seats, and to break in upon a richer. There was indeed no
fear of that at present ; for the dotage of the nation on
presbytery, and the firmness with which the government
supported episcopacy, set them so far from one another,
that no engagement of that sort could be attempted. But
if a king should take a dexterous method for putting that
out of the way, he might carry Scotland to any design he
thought fit to engage in. Lord Tweeddale blamed sir
Francis Bacon much for laying it down as a maxim, that
Scotland was to be reckoned as the third part of the island \
and to be treated accordingly : whereas he assured me
Scotland for numbers of people was not above a tenth part,
and for wealth not above a twentieth part of the island.

The discourse of the union was kept up till it was re-
solved to summon a new parliament in Scotland ; but then
lord Lauderdale made the king reflect on the old scheme
he had laid before him at the restoration, and he under-
took to manage the parliament so as to make it answer
that end more effectually than any before him had ever
done. This was resolved on in the summer [i6]69 ; and
then it was that I being at Hamilton, and having got the
best information of the state of the country that I could,
wrote a long account of all I had heard to the lord
Tweeddale, and concluded it with an advice to put some of
the more moderate of the presbyterians into the vacant
churches. Sir Robert Moray told me the letter was so
well liked, that it was read to the king. Such a letter
281 would have signified nothing, if lord Tweeddale had not
1 See supra 9, where this opinion is ascribed to James I.

of King Charles II. 507

been fixed in the same notion : he had now a plausible CH. XIII.

thing to support it. So my principles, and zeal for the

church, and I know not what besides, were raised, to make

my advice signify somewhat, and it was said I was the man

that went most entirely into all Leighton's maxims. So

this indiscreet letter of mine, sent without communicating

it to Leighton, gave the deciding stroke ; and, as may be

easily believed, it drew much hatred on me from all that

either knew it, or did suspect it. The king wrote a letter

to the privy council, ordering them to indulge such of the

presbyterians as were peaceable and loyal, so far as to

suffer them to serve in vacant churches, though they did

not submit to the present establishment : and he required

them to set them such rules as might preserve order and

peace, and to look well to the execution of them : and as

for such as could not be provided to churches at that time,

he ordered a pension of twenty pounds sterling a year to

be paid to every one of them, as long as they lived orderly.

Nothing followed on the second article of this letter. The

presbyterians looked on this as the king's hire to be silent,

and not to do their duty, and none of them would accept

of it. But as to the first part of the letter, on the first

council day after it was read, twelve of the old ministers

were indulged : they had parishes assigned them : and

about thirty more were afterwards indulged in the same

manner : and then a stop was put for some time. With

the warrants that they had for their churches, there was

a paper of rules likewise put in their hands. Hutcheson,

in all their names, made a speech to the council : he began Aug. 1669.

with decent expressions of thanks to the king and to their

lordships, and he said they should at all times give such

obedience to | laws and orders as could stand with a good MS. 141.

conscience 1. And so they were dismissed. As for those

of them that were allowed to go to the churches where they

had served before, no difficulty could be made : but those

1 See supra 499. For his ' Discourse to the Council,' see Lauderdale
Papers^ ii. 193 ; Wodrow, ii. 133.

508 The History of the Reign

CH. XIII. of them that were named to other churches would not
enter on the serving them, till the church sessions and the
inhabitants of the parish met, and made choice of them for
their pastors, and gave them a call (as they worded it) to
serve among them. But upon this, scruples arose among
some, who said the people's choice ought to be free, whereas
they were now limited to the person named by the council,
so that this looked like an election upon a congt d'elire
with a letter naming the person, with which they had often
diverted themselves. But scruples are mighty things when
they concur with inclination or interest : and when they
282 are not supported by these, men learn distinctions to get
free from them. So it happened in this case : for though
some few were startled at these things, yet they lay in no
man's way ; for every man went, and was possessed of the
churches marked out for them. And at first the people of
the country run to them with a sort of transport of joy.
Yet this was soon cooled x. It was hoped that they would
have begun their ministry with a public testimony against
all [that] had been done in opposition to what they were
accustomed to call the work of God ; but they were silent
at this time, and preached only the doctrines of Christianity.
This disgusted all those who loved to hear their ministers
preach to the times, as they call it. The stop put to the
indulgence made many conclude that those who had
obtained the favour had entered into secret engagements.
So they came to call them the king's curates, as they had
called the clergy in derision the bishops' curates. Their
caution brought them under a worse character, of dumb
dogs, that could not bark. Those who by their fierce
behaviour had shut themselves out from a share in the
indulgence, began to call this Erastianism, and the civil
magistrate's assuming the power of sacred matters. They
said this was visibly an artifice to lay things asleep, with
the present generation ; and was one of the depths of

1 The indulgence divided the true authors, Tweeddale and Kin-
Presbyterians, as intended by its cardine. Cf. supra 499.

of King Charles II. 509

Satan, to give a present quiet, in order to the certain de- CH. XIII.
struction of presbytery. And it was also said, that there
was a visible departing of the divine assistance from those
preachers: they preached no more with the power and
authority that had accompanied them at conventicles. So
many began to fall off from them, and to go again to
conventicles. Many of the preachers confessed to me that
they found an ignorance and a deadness among those who
had been the hottest upon their meetings, beyond what
could have been imagined. Those that could have argued
about the intrinsic power of the church, and episcopacy,
and presbytery, upon which all their sermons had chiefly
run for several years, knew very little of the essentials of
religion. But the indulged preachers, instead of setting
themselves with the zeal and courage that became them
against the follies of the people, of which they confessed to
my self they were very sensible, took a different method ;
and studied by mean compliances to gain upon their affec-
tions, and to take them out of the hands of some fiery men
that were going up and down among them. The tempers
of some brought them under this servile popularity, into
which others went out of craft and a desire to live easy.

The indulgence was settled in a hurry: but when it came 283
to be descanted on, it appeared to be plainly against law.
For by the act restoring episcopacy, none were capable of
benefices but such as should own the authority of bishops,
and be instituted by them. So now the episcopal party,
that were wont to put all authority in the king, as long as
he was for them, began to talk of law T. They said the
king's power was bounded by the law, and that these pro-
ceedings were the trampling of law under foot. For all
parties, as they need the shelter of law or the stretches of
the prerogative, are apt by turns to magnify the one or the
other. Burnet and his clergy were out of measure enraged
at it. They were not only abandoned, but ill used by the
people, who were beginning to threaten, or to buy them out

1 Precisely as in England. Lady M. Kennedy, Sept. 24, 1669 (Bannatyne Club).

510 The History of the Reign

CH. XIII. of their churches, that they also might have the benefit of
the indulgence. The synod of the clergy was held at
Glasgow in October: and they moved that an address
might be drawn up, representing to the king the miseries
they were under, occasioned by the indulgence : they com-
plained of it as illegal, and as like to be fatal to the church1.
So this was, according to the words in some of their acts
of parliament, a misrepresenting the king's proceedings,
in order to the alienating the hearts of his subjects from
him ; which was made capital, as may appear by the
account given in the former book of the proceedings against
the lord Balmerino 2. He that drew this was one Ross,
afterwards archbishop, first of Glasgow, and then of
St. Andrews ; who is yet alive, and was always a proud,
ill-natured, and ignorant man, covetous, and violent out of
measure3. So it was drawn full of acrimony. Yet they
resolved to keep it secret till advice should be taken upon
it ; and accordingly to present it to the privy council, or
not. A copy of this was procured by indirect methods :
and it was sent up to court, after the earl of Lauderdale
was come off", and was on his way to hold the parliament
in Scotland. Lord Lauderdale had left all his concerns at
court with sir Robert Moray : for though, at his mistress's

MS. 142. instigation, he had used him j very unworthily, yet he had
that opinion of his virtue and candour, that he left all his
affairs to his care. As soon as the king saw the clergy's
address, he said it was a new Western Remonstrance 4 :
and ordered that Burnet should not be suffered to come to
the parliament, and that he should be proceeded against as

1 A copy of this address, and the 1675; Archbishop of Glasgow, 1679-

decree of the Privy Council condemn- 1684; Archbishop of St. Andrews,

ing it, Oct. 16, 1669, are in the Sheldon 1684-1688, when he was ejected.

MSS. See Tweeddale's letter, Aug. 5, * 'This new unchristened Re-

1669, Lauderdale Papers, \\. 196. 'Their monstrance' was Moray's phrase;

smelling Erastianismestriksterrour in 'the insolent, impertinent, Glasgow

both partys, and the commons they paper,' Lauderdale called it. See

say call it Rogischly Rascalisme.' Charles's letter, Lauderdale Papers,

* See supra 32-39. ii. 166 For the old ' Western Re-

3 Arthur Ross, Bishop of Argyll, monstrance ' see supra 98.

of King Charles II. 511

far as the law could carry the matter. It was not easy to CH.XIII.
stretch this so far as to make it criminal. But Burnet
being obnoxious on other accounts, they intended to frighten
him to submit, and to resign his bishopric 1.

The parliament was opened in November. Lord Lauder- 284
dale's speech run upon two heads. The one was, the re- iGfy9'
commending to their care the preservation of the church,
as established by law, upon which he took occasion to
express great zeal for episcopacy. The other head related
to the union of both kingdoms. All that was done relating
to that was, that an act passed for a treaty 2 : and in the
following summer, in a subsequent session, commissioners
were named, who went up to treat about it, but they made
no progress ; and the thing fell so soon, that it was very
visible it was never intended in good earnest. The two
first acts passed in parliament were of more importance, Nov. 16,
and had a deeper design 3. The first explained and as-
serted the king's supremacy : but they carried it, as they
are apt to do in Scotland, in such general words, that it
might have been stretched to every thing. It was declared
that the settling all things relating to the external govern-
ment of the church was a right of the crown ; and that all
things relating to ecclesiastical meetings, matters, and
persons, were to be ordered according to such directions as
the king should send to his privy council : and that these
should be published by them, which should have the force
of laws. Lord Lauderdale very probably knew the secret
of the duke's religion 4, and had got into his favour ; so it
is very a likely a that he intended to establish himself in it,

a substituted for probable.

1 See his letters on this during kenzie, Memoirs, 143-155 ; 184-211.
1668 in the Sheldon MSS. English Historical Review, July, 1886.

2 An Act passed in the English 3 Nov. 16, 1669. Acts of 'the Par-
Parliament, for the same purpose, liaments of Scotland, vii. 554. Par-
22 Charles II, c. 9. O. But there is liament was opened on Oct. 19.

no record of an Act passing in the * There is no evidence of this, or

Scotch Parliament. See Lauderdale's intimation that Lauderdale looked

letters, Lauderdale Papers, ii. 143- so far ahead. Charles succeeded by

167 ; and the full account in Mac- this Act in doing what he was trying

512

The History of the Reign

CH. XIII. by putting the church of Scotland wholly in his power ;
but that was yet a secret to us all in Scotland. The method
he took to get it passed was this. He told all those who
loved the presbytery, or that did not much favour the
bishops, that it was necessary to keep them under by
making them depend absolutely on the king. This was
indeed a transferring the whole legislature as to the matters
of the church from the parliament, and the vesting it
singly in the king : yet, he told them, if this were done
as the circumstances might be favourable, the king might
be prevailed on, if a dash of a pen would do it, to change
all of the sudden : whereas that could never be hoped for,
if it could not be brought about but by the pomp and cere-
mony of a parliament. He made the nobility see they
needed fear no more the insolence of bishops, if they were
at mercy, as this would make them. Sharp did not like it,
but durst not oppose it \ He made a long dark speech,
copied out of doctor Taylor, distinguishing between the
civil and the ecclesiastical authority, and voted for it: so
did all the bishops that were present: some absented them-
selves. Leighton was against any such act, and got some
words to be altered in it. He thought it might be stretched
285 to ill ends, and so he was very averse to it ; yet he gave his
vote for it, not having sufficiently considered the extent of
the words, and the consequences that might follow on such
an act ; for which he was very sorry as long as he lived.

to do in England, completely shake
off Church control.

1 ' The Archbishop of St. Andrews
acquiesced, but I found the old spirit
of Presbytery did remain with some
of the Bishops, so unwilling are
churchmen, by what name or title
soever they are dignified, to part
with power.' Lauderdale to Moray,
Nov. 2, 1669. This letter contains
a brilliant description of the debate
on the Act of Supremacy. Lauder-
dale Papers, ii. 151. Lauderdale and
his friends held precisely the same

view regarding episcopal, as regard-
ing Presbyterian, assumption. In
Bellenden's uncouth French ' le
fardau d'un Prester et trop pisant
pour mais epoles.' The Act was
received with a chorus of approval
by all who were in Charles's con-
fidence. It was an encouragement to
him to continue the struggle at home.
' What would King James have given
for such an Act ! ' was Moray's
exclamation. ' The King,' declared
Lauderdale, ' is now master here in
all causes and over all persons.'

of King Charles II. 513

But at that time there were no apprehensions in Scotland Cn. xill.
of the danger of popery. Many of the best of the episcopal
clergy, Nairn and Charteris in particular, were highly
offended at the act. They thought it plainly made the
king our pope, as the presbyterians said it put him in Christ's
stead. They said the king had already too much power in
the matters of the church, and nothing ruined the clergy
more than their being brought into servile compliances
and a base dependance upon courts. I had no share in the
counsels about this act. I only thought it was designed by
lord Tweeddale to justify the Indulgence, which he protested
to me was his chief end in it. And nobody could ever tell
me how the word ecclesiastical matters was put in the act.
Leighton thought he was sure1 it was put in after the
draught and form of the act was agreed on : so it was
generally2 charged on lord Lauderdale. And when the
duke's religion came to be known, then all people saw how
much the legal settlement of our religion was put in his
power by this means. Yet the preamble of the act being
only concerning the external government of the church, it
was thought that matters were to be confined to the sense
that was limited by the preamble.

The next act that passed was concerning the militia 3 : Nov. 16,
all that had been done in raising it was approved, and it
was enacted that it should still be kept up, and be ready

1 Nonsense. S. England, or Ireland, and on any

2 And rightly. service that he might choose. The

3 Both Acts were passed the same Militia, it must be remembered, had
day, Nov. 16. Acts of the Parlia- supplanted in 1667 the regular
ment of Scotland, vii. 554. In order troops, which had been in Rothes's
to carry them Parliament was care- hands (cf. supra 434), and had been
fully packed ; and Lauderdale re- raised in direct contravention of the
fused to allow ' the Presbyterian law. It was now legally secured to
trick of bringing in ministers to pray the king. Lauderdale was warmly
and tell God Almighty news from congratulated by Arlington. 'In one
the debate.' The meaning of the word, and without flattery, your Grace
Militia Act was that by Act of Par- hath played your part well; nothing
liament an army of 22,000 men could but the proverb of " La mariee est
be called upon to march at the king's trop belle " can be said against it.'
bidding to any place of Scotland, Lauderdale Papers, ii. 147, 164, 166.

VOL. I. L 1

514

The History of the Reign

CH. XIII. to march into any of the king's dominions, for any cause in
which his majesty's authority, power, or greatness should
be concerned ; and that they should obey such orders as
should be transmitted to them from the council-board,
without any mention of orders from the king. Upon this
great reflections were made. Some said, that by this the
army was taken out of the king's power and command, and
put under the power of the council : so that if the greater
part of the council should again rebel, as they did in the
year 1638, the army was by the words of this act bound to
follow their orders. But when jealousies broke out in
England of the ill designs that lay hid under this matter,
it was thought that the intent of this clause was, that if the
king should call in the Scottish- army, it should not be
necessary that he himself should send any orders for it :
but that, upon a secret intimation, the council might do
it without order, and then, if the design should miscarry, it
should not lie on the king, but only on the council, whom
286 in that case the king might disown ; and so none about
him should be liable for it. The earl of Lauderdale valued
himself upon these acts, as if he had conquered king-
Ms. 143. doms | by them. He wrote a letter to the king upon it,
in which he said all Scotland was now in his power. The
church of Scotland was now more subject to him than the
church of England was. This militia was now an army
ready upon call : and that every man in Scotland was
ready to march whensoever he should order it, with several
very ill insinuations in it. But so dangerous a thing it is
to write such letters to princes, that this letter fell into
duke Hamilton's hands some years after, and I had it a in
my hands for some days b. It was intended to found an
impeachment on it. But that happened at the time when
the business of the exclusion of the duke from the succession
to the crown was so hotly pursued, that this, which at
another time would have made great noise, was not so

a from him struck out. b to show it to some of the house of commons,

and to found struck out.

of King Charles II. 515

much considered as the importance of it might seem to CH. xni.
deserve. The way how it came into such hands was this.
The king, after he had read the letter, gave it to sir Robert
Moray, and when he died it was found among his papers.
He had been much trusted in the matter of the king's
laboratory 1, and had several of the chymical processes in
his hands. So the king after his death did order one to
look over all his papers for chymical matters : but all the
papers of state were let alone. So this, with many other
papers, fell into the hands of his executors ; and thus this
letter came into hands that would have made an ill use of
it, if greater matters had not been then in agitation. This
is not the single instance that I have known of papers of
great consequence falling into the hands of the executors
of great ministers, that might have been turned to very bad
uses, if they had fallen into ill hands. It seems of great
concern, that when a minister or an ambassador dies, or is
recalled, or disgraced, all papers relating to the secrets of
their employment should be of right in the power of the
government. But I of all men should complain the least
of this, since by this remissness many papers of a high
nature have fallen in my way.

By the act of supremacy the king was now master, and
could turn out bishops at pleasure2. So this had its first
effect on Burnet ; who was offered a pension 3 if he would
submit and resign, and threatened to be treated more

severely if he stood out4. He complied, and retired to Dec. 24,

1669.

1 See supra 167 and infra 556, note. ever, by our author, that an arch-

2 It is questionable whether the bishop and bishop were displaced in
language of the Act authorizes the Scotland in the next reign by the
Crown to deprive bishops of their king's command. See f. 681. R.
sees ; and it would appear that, to 3 It was .£300 a year out of the
dispossess him, Burnet'sownresigna- revenues of the see of Glasgow. R.
tion of it was thought necessary. A 4 ' My great crime was,' the arch-
copy of this resignation, subscribed bishop says, in a letter addressed to
at Edinburgh, Dec. 24, 1669, is pre- Sheldon on the very day of his
served amongst the Sheldon Papers. resignation, ' the information which
[The original is in the Lauderdale I gave his majestic in your grace's
Papers, ii. 175.] It is stated, how- hearing. Yet I bless God, most men

Ll 2

516 The History of the Reign

CH.XHI. a private state of life, and bore his disgrace better than he
had done his honours. He lived four years in the shade,
and was generally much pitied. He was of himself good-
natured and sincere, but was much in the power of others 1.
He meddled too much in that which did not belong to
28? him, and that he did not understand ; for he was not cut
out for a court, or for the ministry: and he was too remiss
in that which was properly his business, and that he under-
stood to a good degree ; for he took no manner of care of
the spiritual part of his function.

At this time the university of Glasgow, to whom the
choice of the professor of divinity does belong, chose me,
though unknown to them all, to be professor there. There
was no sort of artifice or management to bring this
about : it came of themselves : and they did it without
any recommendation from any person whatsoever. So
I was advised by all my friends to change my post, and
go thither. This engaged me both in much study and in
a great deal of business. The clergy came all to me,
thinking I had some credit with those that governed, and
laid their grievances and complaints before me. They
were very ill used, and were so entirely forsaken by their
people that in most places they shut up their churches :
they were also threatened and affronted on all occasions.
On the other hand, the gentlemen of the country came as
much to me, and told me such strange things of the vices
of some, the follies of others, and the indiscretions of them
all, that, though it was not reasonable to believe all that
they said, yet it was impossible not to believe a great deal
of it. And so I soon saw what a hard province I was like
to have of it. Accounts of the state of those parts were
expected from me, and were like to be believed. So it was

here think my integrity is my greatest J In all his letters to Sheldon he
crime.' R. The real reason was his appears to recommend vigorous pro-
opposition to Charles's policy of the ceedings from his own opinion of
Supremacy Act, and in especial the their necessity, and ~not through the
Glasgow Synod and the ' unchristened suggestion of other persons,
remonstrance.' Cf. supra 510, note.

of King Charles II. 517

not easy to know what ought to be believed, nor how matters CH. XIII.
were to be represented : for I found lying and calumny was
so equally practised on both sides, that I came to mistrust
every thing that I heard. One thing was visible, that con-
venticles abounded, and strange doctrines were vented in
them. The king's supremacy was now the chief subject
of declamation. It was said, bishops were indeed enemies
to the liberties of the church, but the king's little finger
would be heavier than their loins had been. After I had
been for some months among them, and had heard so much
that I believed very little, I wrote to lord Tweeddale that
disorders did certainly increase ; but, as for any particulars,
I did not know what to believe, much less could I offer to
suggest what remedies seemed proper. I therefore pro-
posed that a committee of council might be sent round the
country to examine matters, and to give such orders as
were at present necessary for the public quiet, and might
prepare a report against the next session of parliament,
that so proper remedies might be found out.

| Duke Hamilton, lord Kincardine, Primrose, and Drum- MS. i44.
mond, were sent to those parts. They met first at Hamilton, 2
next at Glasgow : then they went to other parts, and came
back, and ended their circuit at Glasgow. They punished
some disorders, and threatened both the indulged ministers
and the countries with greater severities, if they should grow
still more and more insolent upon the favour that had been
shewed them. I was blamed by the presbyterians for all
they did, and by the episcopal party for all they did not ;
since these thought they did too little, as the others thought
they did too much. They consulted much with me, and
suffered me to intercede so effectually for all they had put
in prison, that they were all set at liberty. The episcopal
party thought I intended to make my self popular at their
cost : so they began that strain of fury and calumny that
has pursued me ever since from that sort of people T, as
a secret enemy to their interest, and an underminer of it.

1 A civil term for all who are episcopal. S.

518 The History of the Reign

CH. XIII. But I am, and still was, an enemy to all force and violence
in matters of conscience : and there is no principle that is
more hated by bad, ill-natured clergymen, than that.

The earls of Lauderdale and Tweeddale pressed Leighton
much to accept of the see of Glasgow 1. He declined it
with so much aversion that we were all uneasy at it.
Nothing moved him to hearken to it but the hopes of
bringing about the accommodation that was proposed ; in
which he had all assistance promised him from the govern-
ment. The king ordered him to be sent for to court. He
sent for me on his way, where he stopt a day, to know
from me what prospect there was of doing any good.
I could not much encourage him : yet I gave him all the
hopes that I could raise my self to, and I was then inclined
to think that the accommodation was not impracticable.
Upon his coming to London, he found lord Lauderdale's
temper was much inflamed: he was become fierce and
intractable. But lord Tweeddale made everything as easy
to him as was possible. They had turned out an arch-
bishop : so it concerned them to put an eminent man in
his room, who should order matters with such moderation,
that the government should not be under perpetual dis-
1670. turbance by reason of complaints from those parts. But
now the court was entering into new designs, into which
lord Lauderdale was thrusting himself, with an obsequious,
or rather an officious, zeal. I will dwell no longer at present
on that, than just to name the duchess of Orleans' coming
to Dover, of which a more particular account shall be given,
289 after I have laid together all that relates to Scotland in
the year 1670, and the whole business of the accommodation.
Leighton proposed to the king his scheme of the accom-
modation, and the great advantages that his majesty's
affairs would have, if that country could be brought into
temper. The king was at this time gone off from the
design of a comprehension in England. Toleration was

'The Bishop of Dunblane's exaltation would spare visitation.'
Lauderdale MSS. 23,132, f. 150.

of King Charles II. 519

now thought the best way. Yet the earl of Lauderdale CH. xill.
possessed him with the necessity of doing somewhat to
soften the Scots, in order to the great designs he was then
engaging in. Upon that the king, who seldom gave him-
self the trouble to think twice of any one thing, gave way
to it. Leighton's paper was in some places corrected by
sir R. Moray, and was turned into instructions, by which
lord Lauderdale was authorized to pass the concessions
that were to be offered into laws. This he would never own
to me, though Leighton shewed me the copy of them.
But it appeared probable, by his conduct afterwards, that
he had secret directions to spoil the matter ; and that he
intended to deceive us all. Lord Tweeddale was more to
be depended on ; but he began to lose ground with lady
Dysart, and so his interest did not continue strong enough
to carry on such a matter. Leighton undertook the ad-
ministration of the see of Glasgow, and it was a year after
this before he was prevailed on to be translated thither1.
He came upon this to Glasgow, and held a synod of his
clergy ; in which nothing was to be heard but complaints
of desertion and ill usage from them all. Leighton, in
a sermon that he preached to them, and in several discourses
both in public and private, exhorted them to look up more
to God, to consider themselves as the ministers of the cross
of Christ, to bear the contempt and ill usage they met with
as a cross laid on them for the exercise of their faith and
patience, to lay aside all the appetites of revenge, to humble
themselves before God, to have many days for secret
fasting and prayer, and to meet often together that they
might quicken and assist one another in those holy
exercises : and then they might | expect a blessing from MS. 145.
heaven upon their labours. This was a new strain to the
clergy. They had nothing to say against it : but it was
a comfortless doctrine to them, and they had not been
accustomed to it. No speedy ways were proposed for
forcing the people to come to church, nor for sending

1 Lander dak Papers, ii. 181, 182.

520 The History of the Reign

CH.XIII. soldiers among them, or raising the fines to which they
— were liable. So they went home as little edified with their
new bishop, as he was with them. When this was over, he
went round some parts of the country to the most eminent
290 of the indulged ministers, and carried me with him. His
business was to persuade them to hearken to propositions
of peace. He told them some of them would be quickly
sent for to Edinburgh, where terms would be offered them
in order to the making up our differences. All was sin-
cerely meant : they would meet with no artifices nor
hardships: and if they received those offers heartily, they
would be turned into laws, and all the vacancies then in the
church would be filled by their brethren. They received
this with so much indifference, or rather neglect, that it
would have cooled any zeal that was less warm and less
active than that good man's was. They were scarce civil,
and did not so much as thank him for his tenderness and
care. The more crafty among them, such as Hutcheson,
said it was a thing of general concern, and they were but
single men. Others were more metaphysical, and entertained
us with some poor arguings and distinctions. Leighton
began to lose heart ; yet he resolved to set the negotiation
on foot, and carry it as far as he could.

Aug. 1670. When lord Lauderdale came down letters were writ to
six of them ordering them to come to town l. There was a
long conference between Leighton and them, before the earls
of Lauderdale, Rothes, Tweeddale, and Kincardine. Sharp
would not be present at it, but he ordered Paterson, afterwards
archbishop of Glasgow, to hear all, and to bring him an ac-
count of what passed. Leighton laid before them the mischief
of our divisions, and of the schism that they had occasioned :
many souls were lost, and many more were in danger by these
means : so that every one ought to do all he could to heal
this wide breach, that had already let in so many evils among
us which were like to make way to many more. For his own
part, he was persuaded that episcopacy, as an order distinct

1 Wodrow, ii. 178; Lauderdale Papers, ii. 200.

of King Charles II. 521

from presbyters, had continued in the church ever since the CH. xill.
days of the apostles; that the world had every where received
the Christian religion from bishops, and that a parity among
clergymen was never thought of in the church before the
middle of the last century, and was then set up rather by
accident than on design : yet, how much soever he was
persuaded of this, since they were of another mind, he was
now to offer a temper to them, by which both sides might
still preserve their opinions, and yet unite in carrying on
the ends of the gospel and of their ministry. They had
moderators amongst them, which was no divine institution,
but only a matter of order : the king therefore might name
these : and the making them constant could be no such
encroachment on their function, that the peace of the church
must be broke on such an account. Nor could they say 291
that the blessing of the men named to this function by an
imposition of hands did degrade them from their former
office, to say no more of it : so they were still at least
ministers. It is true, others thought they had a new and
special authority, more than a bare presidency : that did
not concern them, who were not required to concur with
them in any thing but in submitting to this presidency :
and as to that, they should be allowed to declare their own
opinion against it, in as full and as public a manner as they
pleased. He laid it to their consciences to consider of the
whole matter as in the presence of God, without any regard
to party or popularity. He spoke in all near half an hour,
with a gravity and force that made a very great impression
on all who heard it. Hutcheson answered, and said their
opinion for a parity among the clergy was well known : the
presidency now spoke of had made way to a lordly dominion
in the church : and therefore, how inconsiderable soever the
thing might seem to be, yet the effects of it both had been
and would be still very considerable : he therefore desired
some time might be given them to consider well of the pro-
positions now made, and to consult with their brethren about
them : and since this might seem an assembling together

522 The History of the Reign

CH. XIII. against law, he desired they might have the king's com-
missioners' leave for it. This was immediately granted.
We had a second conference, in which matters were more
fully opened, and pressed home on the grounds formerly
mentioned. Lord Lauderdale made us all dine together,
and came to us after dinner : but could scarce restrain
himself from flying out, for their behaviour seemed both
rude and crafty. But Leighton had prepared him for it,
and pressed him not to give them a handle to excuse their
flying off, by any roughness in his deportment towards
them. The propositions offered them were now generally
known. Sharp cried out that episcopacy was to be under-
mined, since the negative vote was to be let go. The in-
ferior clergy thought that if it took effect, and that the
presbyterians were to be generally brought into churches,
they would be neglected, and that their people would
forsake them : so they hated the whole thing. The bigot

MS. 146. presbyterians thought it was a snare, to do that which | had
a fair appearance at present, and was meant only to lay
that generation in their graves in peace ; by which means
episcopacy, that was then shaking over all the nation,
would come to have another root, and grow again out of
that. But the far greater part of the nation approved of
292 this design : and they reckoned, either we would gain our
point and then all would be at quiet, or, if such offers were
rejected by the presbyterians, it would discover their
temper, and alienate all indifferent men from them, and the
nation would be convinced how unreasonable and stubborn
they were, and how unworthy they were of any further favour.
All that was done in this session of parliament was the raising
a tax, and the naming commissioners for the union with
England. Two severe acts passed against conventicles.

There had been a great one held in Fife, near Dum-
fermline, where none had ever been held before. Some
gentlemen of estates were among them, and the novelty of
the thing drew a great crowd together ; for intimation had
been given of it some days before. Many of these came

of King Charles II. 523

in their ordinary arms. That gave a handle to call them CH. xin.

the rendezvous of rebellion. Some of these were taken,

and brought to Edinburgh, and pressed to name as many

as they knew of their fellow conventiclers : but they refused

to do it. This was sent up to court as the forerunner of

rebellion. Upon which lord Lauderdale, hearing what use

his enemies made of it, was transported almost to fits of

rage. Severe acts passed upon it, by which their fines

were raised higher, and they were made liable to arbitrary

severities. The earl of Lauderdale with his own hand put

in a word in the act that covered the papists, the fines being Aug. 13,

laid only on such of the reformed religion as went not to l67°'

church. He pretended by this to merit with the popish

party, the duke in particular ; whose religion was yet

a secret to us in Scotland, though it was none at court.

He said to my self, he had put in these words on design, to

let the party know that they were to be worse used than

the papists themselves. All field conventicles were declared

treasonable, and in the preacher they were made capital.

The landlords on whose grounds they were held were

to be severely fined : and all who were at them were to

be punished arbitrarily, if they did not discover all that

were present whom they knew. And house conventicles,

crowded without the doors or at windows, were to be

reckoned and punished as field conventicles. Sir Robert

Moray told me that the king was very ill pleased with this

act as extravagantly severe, chiefly in that of the preachers

being to be punished by death. He said bloody laws did

no good ; he would never have passed it if he had known

it beforehand. The half of the parliament abhorred this

act ; yet so abject were they in their submissions to lord

Lauderdale, that the young earl of Cassillis was the single

person that voted in the negative. He was heir to his

father's stiffness, but not to his other virtues x. This passed

1 'This morning we finished a defined in all the degrees and
report of a clanking Act against soundly punished/ It was ' all that
Conventicles, where they are to be a law can doe, and past unani-

524 The History of the Reign

CH. XIII. in parliament so suddenly, that Leighton knew nothing of
~93 it till it was too late. He expostulated with lord Tweeddale
severely about it : he said the whole complex of it was so
contrary to the common rules of humanity, not to say
Christianity, that he was ashamed to mix in councils with
those who could frame and pass such acts ; and he thought
it somewhat strange that neither he nor I had been advised
with in it. The earl of Tweeddale said, the late field con-
venticle being a new thing, it had forced them to seventies
that at another time could not be well excused: and he
assured us there was no design to put it in execution. We
wished, rather, that an act had passed upon such a dis-
order of less noise, but more proper to have its effect.
Leighton sent to the western counties six episcopal
divines, all, except my self, brought from other parts :
Nairn and Charteris were two of them, the three others,
Cook, Aird, and Paterson ; all of them were the best that
we could persuade to go round the country to preach in
vacant churches, and to argue upon the grounds of the
accommodation with such as should come to them. The
episcopal clergy, who were yet left in the country, could
not argue much for any thing, and would not at all argue
in favour of a proposition that they hated. The people of
the country came generally to hear us, though not in great
crowds. We were indeed amazed to see a poor com-
monalty so capable to argue upon points of government,
and on the bounds to be set to the power of princes in
matters of religion. Upon all these topics they had texts
of scripture at hand, and were ready with their answers to
any thing that was said to them. This measure of know-
ledge was spread even among the meanest of them, their
cottagers, and their servants. They were indeed vain of
their knowledge, much conceited of themselves, and were

mously' on Aug. 13. < I can, I dare the worke. I heard but one " No"

say, [remove] any scruple against to it, and that was the Earl of

every title in it; the execution is Cassillis according to the laudable

left summarie without any process, custome of his fathers' [supra 89,

and everybody concludes it will do 212]. Lauderdale Papers, ii. 200.

of King Charles II. 525

full of a most entangled scrupulosity; so that they found CH. XIII.
[or] made difficulties in every thing that could be laid
before them. We stayed about three months in the
country : and in that time there was a stand in the fre-
quency of conventicles. But, as soon as we were gone,
a set of those hot preachers went round all the places in
which we had been, to defeat all the good we could hope to
do. They told them the Devil was never so formidable,
as when he was transformed into an angel of light. | The MS. 147.
outed ministers had many meetings in several parts of the
kingdom. They found themselves under great difficulties.
The people had got it among them, that all that was now
driven at was only to extinguish presbytery, by seeming
concessions, with the present generation, and that if the
ministers went into it they gave up their cause, that so
they themselves might be provided for during their lives,
and die at more ease. So they, who were strangely sub-
dued by their desire of popularity, resolved to reject the
propositions, though they could not well tell on what 294
grounds they should justify it. A report was also spread
among them, which they believed, and it had its full effect
upon them : it was said the king was alienated from the
church of England, and weary of supporting episcopacy in
Scotland, and so was resolved not to clog his government
any longer with it ; and that the concessions now made did
not arise from any tenderness we had for them, but from
an artifice to preserve episcopacy : so they were made
believe that their agreeing to them was really a strengthen-
ing of that government that was otherwise ready to fall
with its own weight. And because a passage of Scripture
according to its general sound was apt to work much on
them, that of Touch not, taste not, handle not, was often
repeated among them. So it was generally agreed on to
reject the offers made them. The next debate among
them was, about the reasons they were to give for rejecting
them, or whether they should comply with another pro-
position which Leighton had made them, that if they did

526 The History of the Reign

CH. XIII. not like the propositions he had made, that they would see

if they could be more happy than he was, and offer at other

propositions. In their meetings there was much sad stuff;
they named in some of them two, to maintain the debate,
pro and con. They disputed about the protestation that
they were allowed to make : and protestatio contraria, facto
was a maxim that was in great vogue among them. They
argued upon the obligation by the covenant to maintain
their church, as then established, in doctrine, worship, dis-
cipline, and government : and so every thing that was
contrary to that was represented as a breach of covenant :
and none durst object to that. But that they might make
a proposition that they were sure would not be hearkened
to, they proposed that among the concessions to be insisted
on, one might be, a liberty to ordain without the bishop.
When we heard what their reasonings were, papers were
writ and sent among them, in answer to them. But it is
a vain thing to argue, when a resolution is taken up not
founded on argument, and arguments are only sought for
to justify that which is already resolved on. We pressed
them with this, that, notwithstanding their covenant, they
themselves had afterwards made many alterations much
more important than this of submitting to a constant
moderator, named by the king. Cromwell took from them
the power of meeting in general assemblies : yet they went
on doing the other duties of their function ; though this,
which they esteemed the greatest of all their rights, was
denied them. When an order came out to sequester the
half of the benefices of such as should still pray for the
king, they upon that submitted, though before that they
295 had asserted it was a duty to which they were bound by
their covenant. They had discontinued their ministry in
obedience to laws and proclamations, now for nine years :
and those who had accepted the indulgence had come in
by the king's authority, and had only a parochial govern-
ment, but did not meet in presbyteries. From all which
we inferred, that when they had a mind to lay down any

of King Charles II. 527

thing that they thought a duty, or to submit to any thing CH. xill.
that they thought an invasion of their rights, they could
find a distinction for it : and it was not easy to shew, why
they were not as compliant in this particular. But all was
lost labour. Hot men among them were positive, and all
of them were full of contentious x logic. So two passages of
scripture were generally applied to them. To one sort
of them, that in the Proverbs, The fool rageth, and is con-
fident: and to the other sort, that in Micah, The best of them
is as a briar ^ and the most upright of them is as a thorn-
hedge^. Duchess Hamilton sent for some of them, Hutche-
son in particular. She said, she did not pretend to under-
stand nice distinctions, and the terms of dispute : here was
plain sense : the country might be again at quiet, and the
rest of those that were outed admitted to churches, on
terms that seemed to all reasonable men very easy. Their
rejecting this would give a very ill character of them, and
would have very bad effects, of which they might see cause
to repent when it would be too late. She told me all that
she could draw from him, that she understood, was, that he
saw the generality of their party were resolved against all
treaties, or any agreement : and that if a small number
should break off from them, it would not heal the old
breaches, but would create new ones ; in conclusion, nothing
was like to follow on this whole negotiation. We, who
were engaged in it, had lost all our own side by offering
at it ; and the presbyterians would not make one step
towards us. Leighton desired another meeting with them
at Paisley, to which he carried me and one or two more.
They were about thirty. We had two long conferences
with them. Leighton laid out before them the obligations
that lay | on them to seek for peace at all times, but more MS. 148.
especially when we already saw the dismal effects of our
contentions. There could be no agreement unless on both
sides there was a disposition to make some abatements,
and some steps towards one another. It appeared that we

1 The word contention was substituted for this clause.

528

The History of the Reign

CH. XIII. were willing to make even unreasonable ones of our side :
— and would they abate nothing in theirs? Was their
opinion so mathematically certain, that they could not dis-
pense with any part of it for the peace of the church, and
for the saving of souls ? Many poor things were said on
their side, which would have made a less mild man than he
was lose all patience. But he bore with all their trifling
impertinences, and urged this question on them, Would
they have held communion with the church of God at the
296 time of the council of Nice, or not ? If they should say,
not, he would be less desirous of entering into communion
with them ; since he must say of the church at that time,
Let my soul be with theirs: if they said, they would ; then
he was sure they could not reject the offers now made them,
which brought episcopacy much lower than it was at that
time. One of the most learned among them had prepared
a speech full of quotations, to prove the difference between
the primitive episcopacy and ours at present. I was then
full of those matters: so I answered all his speech, and
every one of his quotations, and turned the whole upon
him with advantages that were too evident to be so much
as denied by their own party : and it seemed the person
himself thought so, for he did not offer at one word of
a reply. In conclusion, the presbyterians desired that the
propositions might be given them in writing, for hitherto
all had passed only verbally ; and words, they said, might
be misunderstood, misrepeated, and denied. Leighton had
no mind to do it : yet, since it was plausible to say they
had nothing but words to shew to their brethren, he writ
them down, and gave me the original, that I still have in
my hands ; but suffered them to take as many copies of it
as they pleased. At parting he desired they would come
to a final resolution, as soon as they could ; for he believed
they would be called for by the next January to give their
answer. And by the end of that month they were ordered
to come to Edinburgh. I went thither at the same time
upon Leighton's desire.

of King Charles II. 529

We met at the earl of Rothes's house, where all this treaty CH. xill.
came to a short conclusion. Hutcheson, in all their name,
said, they had considered the propositions made to them,
but were not satisfied in their consciences to accept of
them. Leighton desired to know upon what grounds
they stood out. Hutcheson said, it was not safe to argue
against laws. Leighton said, that since the government
had set on a treaty with them, in order to the altering the
laws, they were certainly left to a full freedom of arguing
against them. These offers were no laws : so the arguing
about them could not be called an arguing against law.
He offered them a public conference upon them, in the
hearing of all that had a mind to be rightly informed. He
said, the people were drawn into those matters so far, as to
make a schism upon them : he thought it was therefore
very reasonable that they should likewise hear the grounds
examined, upon which both sides went. Hutcheson refused
this : he said he was but one man, and that what he said
was in the name of his brethren, who had given him no
further authority. Leighton then asked if they had nothing 297
on their side to propose towards the healing of our
breaches. Hutcheson answered, their principles were well
enough known, but he had nothing to propose. Upon this
Leighton, in a long discourse, told what was the design he
had been driving at in all this negotiation ; it was to pro-
cure peace and to promote religion. He had offered
several things which he was persuaded were great diminu-
tions of the just rights of episcopacy: yet since all church
power was for edification, and not for destruction, he had
thought that in our present circumstances it might have
conduced as much to the interest of religion, that epis-
copacy should divest itself of a great part of the authority
that belonged to it, as the bishops' using it in former ages
had been an advantage to religion : his offers did not flow
from any mistrust of the cause : he was persuaded episco-
pacy was handed down through all the ages of the church
from the apostles' days : perhaps he had wronged the order

VOL. I. Mm

530

The History of the Reign

CH. xill. by the concessions he had made, yet he was confident God
would forgive it, as he hoped his brethren would excuse it.
Now they thought fit to reject these concessions, without
either offering any reason for doing it, or any expedient on
their side : therefore the continuance of our divisions must
lie at their door, both before God and man : if ill effects
followed upon this, he was free of all blame, and had done
his part. Thus was this treaty broke off, to the amaze-
ment of all sober and dispassionate people, and to the
great joy of Sharp, and the rest of the bishops ; who now
for a while seemed even pleased with us, because we had
all along asserted episcopacy, and had pleaded for it in
a very high and positive strain.

MS. 149. I hope this may be | thought a useful part of the history
of that time. None knew all the steps made in it better
than my self. The fierce episcopal men will see how much
they were to blame for accusing that apostolical man
Leighton, as they did on this occasion, as if he had de-
signed in this whole matter to "betray his own order and to
set up presbytery. The presbyterians may also see how
much their behaviour in this affair disgusted all wise and
moderate men, how little sincere and honest they were in
it, when the desire of popularity made them reject proposi-
tions, that came so home even to the maxims they had set
up, that nothing but the fear of offending, that is, of losing
the credit they had with their party, could be so much as
pretended for their refusing to agree to them. Our part in
the whole negotiation was sincere and open. We were
acted with no other principle, and had no other design, but
to allay a violent agitation of men's spirits, that was
throwing us into great distractions ; and to heal a breach
298 that was like to let in an inundation of miseries upon us, as
has appeared but too evidently ever since. The ahigha
party, keeping still their old bias to persecution, and re-
covering afterwards their credit with the government,
carried violent proceedings so far, that, after they had

n substituted for episcopal.

of King Charles II. 531

thrown the nation into a great a convulsions, they drew upon CH. xin.
themselves such a degree of fury from enraged multitudes,
whom they had oppressed long and heavily, that, in con-
clusion, that order was put down with as much injustice
and violence as had been practised in supporting it, as
shall be told in its proper place. The roughness of our
own side, and the perverseness of the presbyterians, did so
much alienate me from both, that I resolved to withdraw
my self from any further meddling, and to give my self
wholly to study. I was then, and for three years after that
offered to be made a bishop, but I refused it. I saw the
counsels were altering above : so I resolved to look on, and
see whither things would turn.

My acquaintance at Hamilton, and the favour and 1671.
friendship I met with from both duke and duchess, made
me offer my service to them, in order to the search of
many papers that were very carefully preserved by them :
for the duchess's uncle had charged her to keep them with
the same care as she kept the writings of her estate, since
in these a full justification of her father's public actings,
and of his own, would be found, when she should put them
in the hands of one that could set them in order and in
a due light. She put them all in my hands, which I
acknowledge was a very great trust : and I made no ill use
of it. I found there materials for a very large history.
I writ it with great sincerity ; and concealed none of their
errors. I did indeed conceal several things that related to
the king. I left out some passages that were in his letters l ;

a substituted for violent.

1 Salmon, in his Examination, his majesties name to the assembly,

i. 641, points out a passage in so strictly conscientious was his

these Memoirs of the Dukes ofHamil- majesty (Charles I) that he wrote

ton, 93, in which the bishop thus the sense of it in the following

expresses himself: 'Because of an letter, which is here subjoined.'

ambiguous word which was in the Speaker Onslow refers to 379 of

paper the marquis was to offer in the Memoirs, and in this page are

M m 2

532

The History of the Reign

CH. xill. in some of these was too much weakness, and in others too
much craft and a anger a. And this I owe to truth to say,
that by many indications that lay before me in those
letters, I could not admire either the judgment and under-
standing, or the temper b of that unfortunate prince. He
had c little0 regard to law, and seemed to think that he
was not bound to observe promises or concessions, that
were extorted from him by the necessity of his affairs.
He had little tenderness in his nature; and probably his
government would have been severe, if he had got the
better in the war. His ministers had a hard time under
him : he loved violent counsels, but conducted them so ill,
that they saw they must all perish with him. Those who
observed this, and advised him to make up matters with
his parliaments by concessions, rather than venture on
a war, were hated by him, even when the extremities to
which he was driven made him follow their advices, though
generally too late, and with so ill a grace that he lost the
merit of his concessions in the awkward way of granting
them. This was truly duke Hamilton's fate, who in the
beginning of the troubles went in warmly enough into
acceptable counsels ; but when he saw how unhappy the
king was in his conduct, he was ever after that against the
king's venturing on a war, which he always believed would
be fatal to him in conclusion. I got through that work in

* substituted for ill-nature.
for no.

or sincerity struck out. c substituted

the following words : — 'Having pro-,
posed to myself nothing more in
this whole work, than to let the
world see the great piety and strict-
ness of conscience that blessed
prince carried along with him in all
his affairs, and to publish such re-
mains of his pen as had not formerly
been seen or known, I shall there-
fore insert a copy of verses written
by his majesty in his captivity.' R.
On Burnet's Memoirs of the Dukes of

Hamilton see Cockburn's Remarks,
dc., 47. He states that in an un-
published autobiography of Guthrie,
Bishop of Dunkeld, there were some
severe reflections on Duke James
(now printed) ; that Sir James Turner
was employed to write his memoirs
in order to vindicate the duke ; and
that he succeeded so badly that
Burnet promised to do it better, and
was therefore allowed access to all
the duke's papers. Id. 49.

of King Charles II. 533

a few months. When the earl of Lauderdale heard that CH. xill.
I had finished it, he desired me to come up to him ; for he
was sure he could both rectify a many a things and enlarge on
a great many more *. Upon which I went to court. His
true design was to engage me to put in a great deal re-
lating to himself in that work. I found another degree of
kindness and confidence from him upon my coming up than
ever before. I had nothing to ask for my self, but to be
excused from the offer of two bishoprics ; but whatsoever
I asked for any other person was granted : and I was con-
sidered as his favourite. He trusted me with all secrets,
and seemed to have no reserves with me. He indeed
pressed me to give up with sir Robert | Moray : and I saw MS. 150.
that upon my doing that, I would have as much credit
with him as I could desire. Sir Robert himself appre-
hended this would be put to me, and pressed me to comply 299
with them in it. But I hated servitude, as much as I loved
him : so I refused it flatly. I told lord Lauderdale, that
sir Robert had been as a second father or governor to me,
and therefore I could not break friendship with him ; but
I promised to speak to him of nothing that he trusted to
me ; and this was all that he could ever bring me to,
though he put it often to me. I was in great doubt
whether it was fit for me to see his mistress. Sir Robert
put an end to that ; for he assured me there was nothing
in that commerce that was between them besides a vast
fondness. Yet I asked lord Lauderdale how he had parted
with his wife2. He gave me a better account of it than
I expected. I knew that she was an imperious and ill-
tempered woman. Ffe said she herself had desired it. and
that she owned she was not at all jealous of his familiarities
with Mady Dysartb, but that she could not endure it,
because she hated her. I was thus persuaded to go to her,

n substituted for some. b substituted for his mistress.

1 For an account of this, and of Burnet's first presentation to Charles,
see Cockburn, 53. 2 See supra 533.

534

The History of the Reign

CH. XIII. and was treated by them both with a an entire confidence.
Applications a were made to me: and everything that I
proposed was done. I laid before him the ill state the
affairs of Scotland were falling into by his throwing off so
many of his friends. Duke Hamilton and he had been for
some years in ill terms, I laid down a method for bringing
them to a better understanding. I got kind letters to pass
on both sides, and put their reconciliation in so fair a way
that upon my return to Scotland it was for that time fully
made up. I had authority from him to try how both the
earls of Argyll and Tweeddale might return to their old
friendship with him. The earl of Argyll was ready to do
every thing, but the earl of Athol had proposed a match
between his son and lady Dysart's daughter, and he had
a hereditary hatred to the lord Argyll and his family : so
that could not be so easily brought about. Lord Tweed-
dale was resolved to withdraw from business. The earl of
Lauderdale had for many years treated his brother the lord
Halton with as much contempt as he deserved ; for he was
both weak and violent, insolent and corrupt He had
promised to settle his estate on his daughter, when lord
Tweeddale's son married her ; but his brother offered now
every thing that lady Dysart desired, provided she would
get his brother to settle his estate on himb. So Halton

Nov. 1673. was now taken into affairs, and had so much credit with
his brother that all the dependance was upon him 1. And
thus the breach between the earls of Lauderdale and
Tweeddale was irreconcileable ; though I did all I could to
make it up.

As to church affairs, lord Lauderdale asked my opinion
concerning them. I gave it frankly to this purpose : there

a originally so entire a confidence that I was considered their favourite, so that
applications. b Every thing she proposed was done struck out.

1 He was left in November, 1673,
as Lauderdale's deputy, in succession

to Kincardine, who had then broken
with Lauderdale.

of King Charles II. 535

were many vacancies in the disaffected counties, ato which CH. XIII.
no conformable men of any worth could be prevailed on to
go : a so I proposed that the indulgence should be extended
to them all, and that the ministers should be put into
those parishes by couples, and have the benefice divided
between them J ; and in the churches where the indulgence
had already taken place, that a second minister should be
added, and have the half of the benefice. By this means
I reckoned that all the outed ministers would be again
employed, and kept from going round the uninfected parts
of the kingdom. I said, if this was done, either the parishes
would by gratuities mend their benefices, that so the two
who had only the legal provision of one might subsist ;
and if they did this, as I had reason to doubt of it, it would
be a settled tax on them, of which they would soon grow
weary ; but if they did it not, it would create quarrels, and
at least a coldness among them. I also proposed that
they should be confined to their parishes ; not to stir out soo
of them without leave from the bishop of the diocese,
or a privy councillor ; and that, upon their transgressing
the rules that should be set them, a proportion of their
benefice should be forfeited, and applied to some pious use.
Lord Lauderdale heard me to an end, and then, without
arguing one word upon any one branch of this scheme, he
desired me to put it in writing ; which I did. And the
next year, when he came down again to Scotland, he made
one write out my paper, and turned it into the style of
Instructions2. So easily did he let himself be governed

a substituted for which were never like to be filled up by conformable men.

1 ' There is one thing in my presbyteries and synods.' Arch-
present charge I am much concerned bishop Leighton to Lauderdale, Dec.
in and sollicitous about, 'tis ye sup- i, 1671, Lauderdale Papers, ii. 217.
plying of ye vacant kirks in ye 2 Sharp, on Nov. 23, 1671, wrote
western part especially, for ye truth to Lauderdale : ' I have heard
is wee have not men for them, and some discourses both before Mr.
ye people in most of ye parishes Gilbert Burnet his going to London
would not receive angels, if they and since of his meddling with
comitt ye horrid crime of going to church affairs, but I doe not give

536

The History of the Reign

CH XIII. by those whom he trusted, even in matters of great con-
sequence. Four bishops happened to die that year, of
which Edinburgh was one. I was desired to make my own
choice : but I refused them all ; yet I obtained a letter to
be writ by the king's order to lord Rothes. that he should
call the two archbishops, and four of the officers of state,
and send up their opinion to the king of the persons fit to
be promoted : and a private letter was writ to the lords, to
join with Leighton in recommending the persons that he
should name. Leighton was uneasy a, when he found that
Charteris and Nairn, as well as my self, could not be pre-
vailed on to accept a bishopric. They had an ill opinion
of the court 1, and could not be brought to leave their re-
tirement. Leighton was troubled at this : he said, if his

MS. 151. friends left the whole load on him | he must leave all to
Providence ; yet he named the best men he could think
on, and, that Sharp might not have too public an affront
put on him, Leighton agreed to one of his nomination.
But now I go to open a scene of another nature.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE TREATY OF DOVER. THE 'CABAL.'

1670. THE court was now going in to other measures. The
parliament had given the king all the money that he had
asked for repairing his fleet, and for supplying his stores
and magazines 2. Additional revenues were also given for

a substituted for troubled.

anie credit to them, you having been
pleased to tell me he did not ; and if
he attempted any thing to my pre-
judice, who have done him some good
offices, but never any ill [cf. supra
388], I forgive him/ &c. Lauder-
dale Papers, ii. 216 ; Cockburn's
Remarks, 73. For the Acts of Council

founded on this scheme, Sept. 2 and
3, 1672, and for the objections of
the ministers, see Wodrow, ii. 203.

1 For that very reason they should
have accepted bishoprics. S.

2 Bridgeman's speech, Oct. 24,
1670, named £500,000 as the normal
annual cost in peace, and an

of King Charles II.

537

some years ; and at their last sitting in the beginning of CH. XIV.
the year [16] 70, it appeared that the house of commons
was out of countenance for having given so much money,
and seemed resolved to give no more. All was obtained
under the pretence of maintaining the Triple Alliance.
When the court saw how little reason they had to expect
further supplies, the duke of Buckingham told the king,
that now the time was come in which he might both
revenge the attempt on Chatham and shake off the uneasy
restraint of a house of commons : and he got leave from the
king to send over sir Ellis Leighton to the court of France,
to offer the project of a new alliance and a new war 1.

additional £800,000 was asked for on
Oct. 24, 1670. The king's debts at
this time were over £2.000,000. The
preparations made in France and the
Low Countries were named as the
reasons for an increase in the forces,
and the Triple Alliance as one of the
leagues in force: although Charles
was bound by the Treaty of Dover to
assist in the attack upon the Dutch.
Cal. St. P. Dom. 1670, 493, 498;
ParL Hist, iv. 456; Marvell, Nov.
i, 1670. From Arlington's Letters
(1701), ii. 288, it appears that Charles
tried in January, i6f$, to obtain
money from Spain for the support of
troops to defend Flanders. On March
ii, Arlington wrote to Sir W. Godol-
phin that new life had been given to
the Triple League ; and the deception
was kept up until November, 1671.
Id. 295, 299, 302, 311, 335. For the
desperate efforts of the king to bor-
row money see Marvell, Nov. 28,
1670. He could, after the utmost
efforts, raise no more than £20,000
from the City ; but the ' fanatics of
all sorts ' gave him £40,000.

1 This was at the end of 1668, and
without the knowledge of Arlington,
who was doing the same thing
through Williamson. Mignet, Nego-

tiations, <£r., iii. 56. Colbert had in-
structions to bribe both to secure
their masters (Louis XIV to Col-
bert in Forneron's Louise de Kerou-
alle, 23), but Williamson proved in-
corruptible. Upon Arundel's mission
in January, 1669, see Macpherson, i.
48, and Ranke, iii. 497. Ellis Leigh-
ton (supra 243, note) had become
Buckingham's ' creature ' in Scot-
land in 1650. Walker's Journal, 177.
There is an interesting notice of him,
referring to this time, in an undated
letter of Lord Preston ; H. M. C. Rep.
vii 402 : ' They say that their king
esteemed him more than the ambas-
sador of our nation. That he had
a most notable wit, and when I used
to say I doubted he was a little
atheistical, "So much the better
statesman," say they," we know well
enough an abbey will not choke
him." And effectually afterwards
I understand he had a rich abbey
given him by the King of France.'
In 1677 he was imprisoned in France
for corrupt practices. Fleming Papers ,
Aug. i, 1677. See the Lindsey MSS.,
H. M. C. R p. xiv. App. Part ix. 378.
Pepys, March 27, 1667, mentions him
as ' a wonderful witty, ready man for
sudden answers and little tales.'

538

The History of the Reign

CH. XIV. Sir Ellis told me this himself ; and was proud to think that
301 he was the first man employed in those black and fatal
designs. But, in the first proposition made by us, the
subduing of England, and the toleration of popery here,
was offered, as that with which the design must be begun.
France, seeing England so inclined, resolved to push the
matter further.

The king's sister, the duchess of Orleans1, was thought
the wittiest woman in France, but had no sort of virtue,
and scarce retained common decency. The king of France
had made love to her, which we had very readily enter-
tained, and was highly incensed when she saw that this
was only a pretence to cover his addresses to madamoiselle
la Valliere, one of her maids of honour, whom he afterwards
declared openly to be his mistress. Yet she had recon-
ciled herself to the king, and was now so entirely trusted
by him that he ordered her to propose an interview with
her brother at Dover. The king went thither, and was so
much charmed with his sister that it did not pass without
the severest censures, every thing she proposed, and every

1 The employment of the Duchess
of Orleans, who maintained a con-
stant correspondence with Charles
and his ministers (Mrs. Ady, Madame,
258), was also Buckingham's idea,
as early as November, 1668 (Mignet,
Negotiations, iii. 59). See his letter
to her of Feb. 17, i66f, Dalrymple,
i. 69. The proposal that she should
visit Charles in England appears to
have come from him. Colbert to
Lionne, Nov. 17, 1669, Jan. 26, i6f$.
It appears to have been genuine
zeal for Catholicism, and conse-
quent hatred of the Dutch, with a
distinct genius for political intrigue,
which informed her activity. Her
husband refused to allow her to go
further than Dover ; and it is stated
that the difficulty of settling questions
of precedence between her and the

Duchess of York was an additional
reason for this limitation. Verney
MSS., May 1 1, 1670. The visit lasted
only from May 30 to June 2. James,
who objected to the war because
he foresaw that the complications
it would lead to would frustrate
the Catholic design (Clarke's Life of
James II, 1.450), did his best to hinder
the visit. Charles left him in London
on the pretext of danger from the
discontent of the Dissenters at the
closing of their Conventicles on May
10 ; and he reached Dover too
late to prevent the harm which he
feared from the interview. Id, 449.
Henrietta's part is acknowledged in
the phrase by which the Treaty of
Dover was known, — the * Traite de
Madame.'

of King Charles II.

539

favour she asked, was granted J : the king could deny her CH. XIV.
nothing. She proposed an alliance in order to the con-
quest of Holland. The king had a mind to have begun at
home 2 ; but she diverted him from .that. It could not be
foreseen what difficulties the king might meet with, upon
the first opening the design : as it would alarm all his
people, so it would send a great deal of wealth and trade,
and perhaps much people, over to Holland : and by such
an accession they would grow stronger, as he would grow
weaker. So she proposed that they should begin with
Holland, and attack it vigorously both by sea and land ;
and upon their success in that, all the rest would be an easy
work. This account of that negotiation was printed twelve
years after, at Paris, by one abbot Primi 2. I had that part
of the book in my hands in which this was contained.

1 For the horrible charge hinted
at here and on f. 612 by Burnet,
by Ludlow, Memoirs, ii. 422, and by
Andrew Marvell, Historical Poem,
67, and emphatically asserted in the
Secret History of Charles II. 50, there
is, as Fox observes in his History of
James II, 71, not the slightest
evidence. The intense and touching
affection which Charles felt for his
sister — perhaps the onlyperson whom
he ever really loved — which is so
fully exhibited in Mrs. Ady's Madame,
is probably alone accountable for the
suggestion. Reresby, 82, is the only
authority for the statement that she
fell in love with Monmouth at this
time. 'Before her death, it is said,
that she sent for Mr. Ralph Mounta-
gue, the English ambassador, and
discovered to him the object of her
interview with her brother, swearing
in the most solemn manner, that the
suspicion of having entertained too
familiar attachment to any of her
own blood was utterly groundless.'
Cunningham's History of Great Britain,
translated by Dr. Thomson, from the

Latin MS. vol. i. p. 25. For further
refutation see Lansdowne's Works,
ii. 253.

2 I.e. 'to shake off the uneasy
restraint of the House of Commons,'
supra 537. This is, of course, only
supposition. He did affect to wish
to 'begin at home/ by declaring his
conversion, about which Burnet
knew nothing, but only because he
was anxious to handle Louis's money
without doing anything. Mignet,
Negotiations, iii. part iv. sect. i.

3 See the whole account of this
in the Graham Papers, H. M. C. Rep.
vii. 267, 404. Primi's book was
very accurate. There is a trans-
lation of this work in the State Tracts
published after the Revolution. It
appears to have been first written in
Italian. Note to Lord J. Russell's
Life of Lord William Russell, 1 10. It
is clear that at the date of Preston's
letter, July 22, 1682, the real story
of the Treaty of Dover was quite
unsuspected. See Montague to
Charles II, Arlington's Letters to
Temple (1701), 444.

540

The History of the Reign

CH. XIV. Lord Preston was then the king's envoy at Paris : so he,
knowing how great a prejudice the publishing this would
be to his master's affairs, complained of it, and the book
was upon that suppressed, and the writer was put in the
Bastille. But he had drawn it out of the papers of
Mr. le Tellier s office : so there is little reason to doubt of
the truth of the thing. She, as this book said, prevailed to
have her scheme settled, and so went back to France.
The journey proved fatal to her : for the duke of Orleans
had heard such things of her behaviour, that he ordered
a great dose of sublimate to be given her in a glass of
a chicory water*, of which she died in a few hours after in
great torment : and when she was opened, her stomach
was all ulcered *

Since I mention her death, I will set down one story of

her, that was told me by Stouppe, who had it from some

302 who were well informed of the matter 2. The king of

France had courted madame Soisons, and made a shew of

courting madame ; but his affections fixing on madamoiselle

a substituted for chocolate, and glass for another word obliterated.

1 Sir William Temple told me, the
king employed him in searching into
the truth of this report, but finding
there was more in it than was fit to
be known, unless he had been in a
condition to resent it as a great king
ought, advised him to drop the in-
quiry, for fear it should prejudice
her daughters, who were afterwards
married to the Duke of Savoy and
King of Spain. D. The proces-
verbal of the post-mortem examina-
tion, at which, besides Lord Salis-
bury, Ralph Montague, and James
Hamilton, the English physician
Chamberlain and a surgeon in
Charles's service, Boscher, were
present, refutes the idea of poison-
ing ; though Temple, writing to
Arlington on July 15, hints that the

English doctors were not satisfied,
and Montague believed throughout
in foul play. See, too, the Letters of
Charlotte Elizabeth (the Duke of
Orleans's second wife), 234. The
whole subject is fully discussed in
Mrs. Ady's Madame, ch. xxvi. The
death of Henrietta left Louis without
any binding personal influence upon
Charles ; with the help of Colbert
and Arlington he secured this in the
person of Louise de Keroualle.
Henrietta left, besides a son who
died young, two daughters; Maria,
married to Charles II, King of Spain,
and Anna Maria, who married Ama-
deus II, Duke of Savoy, and after-
wards King of Sicily and Sardinia.
2 Poor authority. S.

of King Charles II. 541

la Valliere, she whom he had forsaken, as well as she whom CH. XIV.
he had a deceived a, resolved to be revenged : and they
entered into a friendship in order to that. They had each
of them a gallant : madame had the count de Guiche !,
and the other had the marquis des Vardes, then in great
favour with the king, and a very graceful person. When
the treaty of the king of France's marriage was on foot,
there was an opinion generally received that the infanta of
Spain was a woman of great genius, and would have a con-
siderable stroke in all affairs : so, many young men of
quality set themselves to learn the Spanish language, to
give them the more credit with the young queen. All
that fell to the ground, when it appeared how weak a
woman she was 2. These two were of that number. Count
de Guiche watched an occasion, when a letter from the
king of Spain was given to his daughter by the Spanish
ambassador, and she tore the envelope, and let it fall. So
he gathered up all the parcels of it, together with the seal.
From these they learnt to imitate the king of Spain's
writing ; and they sent to Holland to get a seal graven
from the impression on the wax. When all was prepared,
a letter was writ, as in the name of the king of Spain,
reproaching his daughter for her tameness in such an | MS. 152
affront as the king put on her amours, with reflections full
both of contempt and anger upon the king. There was one
Spanish lady left about the queen : so they forged another
letter, as from the Spanish ambassador to her, with that to

a substituted for abused.

1 [Reresby, 32, mentions this, 'if refers to Lord Lansdowne's Works,

stories be true.' The Comte de Guiche vol. ii. p. 253, where this scandal, as

was her husband's confidant. See he says, is wiped off. R.
Madame, passim. Mrs. Ady will 2 A story taken from an idle French

allow nothing beyond imprudence Romance, called Conquetes A-mou-

in Henrietta's conduct.] There is reuses, &c., and, I think, in Madame

extant, among other pieces, one de Motteville's History of Anne of

called Histoire Galante du Comte de Austria. Cole. Mrs. Ady's Madame

Guiche et Madame, 1667. But Cole supplies the necessary corrections.

542

The History of the Reign

CH. XIV. the queen inclosed in it, desiring her to deliver it secretly
into the queen's own hand. And they made a livery, such
as the Spanish ambassador's pages wore, and a boy was
sent in it with the letter. The lady suspected no forgery ;
but fancied the letter might be about some matter of state;
so she thought it safest to carry it to the king, who,
reading it, ordered an inquiry to be made about it. The
Spanish ambassador saw he was abused in it. So the king
spoke to the marquis des Vardes, not doubting that he was
in it, and charged him to search after the author of this
abuse that was intended to be put on him. The ladies
now rejoiced that the looking after the discovery was put
in the hands of a man so much concerned in it. He
amused the king long with the inquiries that he was
making, though he was ever in a wrong scent. But in all
this time madame was so pleased with his conduct, that
she came to like his person ; and had so little command of
herself, that she told madame Soisons she was her rival.
303 The other readily complied with her ; and, by an odd piece
of extravagance, he was sent for, and madame Soisons
told him, since he was in madame's favour, she released
him of all obligations, and delivered him over to her.
Marquis des Vardes thought this was only an artifice of
gallantry, to try how faithful he was to his amours : so he
declared himself incapable of changing, in terms full of
respect for madame, and of passion for the other. This
raised in madame so deep a resentment, that she resolved
to sacrifice Des Vardes, but to save the count de Guiche.
So she gave him notice, that the king had discovered the
whole intrigue, and charged him to haste out of France.
And as soon as she believed that he was in Flanders, she
told all to the king of France ; upon which Des Vardes
was not only disgraced, but kept long a prisoner in Aigues
Mortes, and afterwards he was suffered to come to Mon-
pelier, and it was almost twenty year after before he was
suffered to come to court. I was at court when he came
first to it. He was much broke in his health, but was

of King Charles 1L 543

become a a philosopher, and was in great reputation among CH. XIV.
all Des Cartes's followers. Madame had an intrigue with
another person, whom I knew well, the count of Treville.
When she was in her agony, she said, Adieu Treville. He
was so struck with this accident, that it had a good effect
on him ; for he went and lived many years among the
fathers of the Oratory, and became both a very learned
and devout man. He came afterwards out into the
world. I saw him often. He was a man of a very sweet
temper, only a little too formal for a Frenchman ; but he
was very sincere. He was a Jansenist : he hated the
Jesuits, and had a very mean opinion of the king, which
appeared in all the instances in which it was safe for him
to shew it.

Upon madame's death, as the marshal Bellefonds came
from France with the compliment to the court of England,
so the duke of Buckingham was sent thither on pretence to
return the compliment, but really to finish the treaty x.
The king of France used him in so particular a manner,
knowing his vanity, and caressed him to such a degree,
that he went in without reserves into the interests of
France : yet he protested to me that he never consented to
the French fleet's coming into our seas and harbours. He
said he was offered 4O,coo/. if he could persuade the king to
yield to it : and he appealed to the earl of Dorset for this,
who was on the secret 2. He therefore concluded that since,

a great struck out.

1 See note supra 537 upon Buck- < The prince [Rupert] lias a com-
ingham's treaty. His journey to mission as well, and they say more
France in the summer of 1670 gave absolute, from the King of France,
the first alarm to the Dutch. Temple to command M. d'Estre'e, than that
to Arlington, Aug. 12, 1670, Memoirs, of the king to command the English
ii. 138. fleete.' Hatton Correspondence. The

2 What Charles insisted upon was complete ignorance of even well-in-
that no English admiral should be formed politicians as to Charles's
called upon to serve under French designs — 'a work of darkness, which
orders. The French fleet was to be could never yet be understood or dis-
regarded as auxiliary. See Lyttel- covered but by the effects ' (Marvell,
toil's letter to Hatton, May 20, 1673 : Popery and Arbitrary Power, 266) —

544

The History of the Reign

CH. XIV. after all the uneasiness shewed at first, the king had
yielded to it, that lord Arlington had the money. Lord
Shaftesbury laid the blame of this chiefly on the duke of
304 Buckingham : for he told me that he himself had writ
a peremptory instruction to him from the king to give up
all treaty, if the French did insist on the sending a fleet to
our assistance; and therefore he blamed him as having
yielded it up, since he ought to have broke all further
treaty, upon their insisting on this. But the duke of York
told me, there was no money given to corrupt the king's
ministers ; that the king and he had long insisted on
having all their supplies from France in money, without
a fleet ; and that the French shewed them it was not
possible for them to find a fonds for so great an expense,
unless we took a squadron of their ships ; since they could
not both maintain their own fleet, and furnish us with the
money that would be necessary if we took not their
squadron. It was agreed that the king should have
35o,oco/. a year during the war, together with a fleet from
France that was to be under the command of the English
admiral. With this fleet England was to attack the Dutch
by sea, while the king of France should invade them by
land with a mighty army. It was not doubted, but that

MS. 153. the States | would find it impossible to resist so great a force,
and would therefore submit to the two kings. So the
division they agreed on was, that England should have
Zealand, and that the king of France should have all the
rest, except Holland, which was to be given to the prince
of Orange if he would come into the alliance : and it should

may be seen in Lyttelton's letters of
Oct. 10, 20, 1670 ; Hatton Corre-
spondence, i. 57. In March, 1671,
Marvell writes, 'We have no fleet
out ... I believe he [the King of
France] will attempt nothing on us,
but leave us to dy a natural death.
For indeed never had poor nation so
many complicated, mortal, incurable

diseases/ 'The greatest fear is that
the King of France understands
the King of England better than the
King of England understands the
King of France.' Verney MSS., April
20, 1671. The deception was still
maintained by Charles and Arlington
in October, 1671. Arlington's Letters,
ii- 335-

of King Charles II.

545

be still a trading country, but without any capital ships. CH. XIV.
Lord Lauderdale said upon that occasion to me, that
whatsoever they intended to do they were resolved to do
it effectually all at once ; but he would not go into further
particulars1. That the year [i6]7s might be fatal to other
commonwealths as well as to the States, the duke of Savoy
was encouraged to make a conquest of Genoa 2, though he

1 Burnet's account needs great
modification. He was ignorant of
the conditions of the real Treaty of
Dover, containing the article regard-
ing the king's conversion, which was
not known until Dalrymple pub-
lished his Memoirs (1771), though
he had a general idea of the sham
treaty from which this article was
omitted, which Buckingham was
allowed by Charles and his rival
Arlington to conclude, and by which
he, with Shaftesbury and the other
Protestant ministers, were com-
pletely duped. Mignet, Negotiations,
iii. 256 ; Dalrymple, App. to ch. ii ;
Ralph, i. 185; Echard,866; Lingard,
xi. 220. In addition to the pos-
sibility of territorial gains from the
States themselves, Charles and
Arlington, the latter of whom
proved himself a diplomatist almost
of the first rank, were determined to
secure, and did secure, very extensive
commercial advantages from Louis.
Mignet, Negotiations, iii. partie iv.
sect, i ; Dalrymple, i. 41 ; Ranke.
iii. 496. In the paper which Sunder-
land and William Godolphin pre-
sented on the part of Charles to the
Spanish minister Penaranda on Jan.
26, 1672, Charles assumes that the
initiative was his : ' And therefore
resolving to right himself ^God will-
ing) by the force of arms ... he hath
induced the most Christian King . . .
to assist him in making this war
against the States General.' Spanish
Negotiations, ii. 144. Upon Charles's
VOL. I. N

preparations for using force in Eng-
land, should there be opposition
when in accordance with the treaty
he declared his conversion, see
Clarke's Life of James 77, i. 443 ;
Cal. St. P. Dom. 1671, 391, and his
own letter to his sister, June 6, 1669 :
' I am securing all the principal ports
in this country, not only by fortify-
ing them as they ought to be, but
likewise the keeping them in such
hands as I am sure will be faithfull to
me upon all occasions, and this will
secure the fleete, because the chiefe
places where the ships lye are
chattam and portsmouth.' Mrs.
Ady's Madame, 288. It will be re-
membered that he was nominally
secure of an army from Scotland of
22,000 men by Act of the Scotch
Parliament (supra 513), and Ireland
was safe under Berkeley. See Dal-
rymple, i. 89. In his letter of June 6,
1670, to Louis XIV, Colbert states
that Charles hoped, by pressing the
late Conventicle Act with the utmost
severity, to drive the Nonconformists
to such extremities as should serve
him for a pretence for strengthening
his forces. Id. i. 106. That Charles
had any defined idea of using force
is however contrary to his nature
and to all probability.

Upon the connexion of this second
Dutch war with the rising strength
of Catholicism in Europe, see Ranke,
iii. 493.

2 Ludlow's Memoirs, ii. 437-439.

11

546

The History of the Reign

CH. XIV. afterwards failed in the attempt : and the king of Denmark
was invited into the alliance, with the offer of the town of
Hamborough, on which he had long set his heart. The
duke of Richmond was sent to give a lustre to that negotia-
tion, which was chiefly managed by Mr. Henshaw, who
told me that we offered that king some ships to assist him
in seizing on that rich town ; but he was then in those
engagements with the states of Holland, that even this
offer did not prevail on him. Lockhart l was brought to
court by lord Lauderdale, hoping that he would continue
in an entire dependance on him, and be his creature. He
was under so great a jealousy, that he was too easy to
enter into any employment that might bring him into
favour, not so much out of an ambition to rise, as from
a desire to be safe, and to be no longer looked on as an
enemy to the court : for when a foreign minister asked the
king's leave to treat with him in his master's name, the
king consented ; but with this severe reflection, that he
305 believed he would be true to any body but himself. He
was sent to the courts of Brandenburgh and Lunenburgh,
either to draw them into the alliance, or, if that could not
be done, at least to secure them from all apprehensions ;
but in this he had no success. And indeed when he saw
into what a negotiation he was engaged, he became very
uneasy : for though the blackest part of the secret was not
trusted to him, as appeared to me by his instructions, which
I read after his death, yet he saw whither things were
going, and that affected him so deeply that it was believed
to have contributed not a little to the languishing he soon
fell under, that ended in his death two year after 2.

The war being thus resolved on, some pretences were in
the next place to be sought out to excuse it 3 : for, though

1 See supra 138, 155, 404.

2 Lockhart was Ambassador to
France from March, 167^ to May,
1675. See a synopsis of his de-
spatches, H. M. C. Rep. iv. 237-242.
He died March 20, 167^ ; f. 389.

? The alliance of Catholic despotism
with a Protestant and parliamentary
country was so glaringly absurd that
expressions such as the following do
not surprise us : ; I see not any pro-
bability of a war with the Dutch.'

of King Charles II.

547

the king of France went more roundly to work, and pub- CH. XIV.
lished that he was so ill satisfied with the conduct of the
States, that it did not consist with his glory to bear it any
longer, yet we thought it decent for us to name some
particulars. It was said we had some pretensions on
Surinam, not yet completely satisfied ; and that the States
harboured traitors that fled from justice, and lived in
Holland : some medals were complained of that seemed
dishonourable to the king, as also some pictures : and
though these were not made by public order, yet a great
noise was raised about them x. But an accident happened
that the court laid great hold of2. The Dutch fleet lay off

Verney MSS. Dec. 14, 1671. 'I can-
not think why the Dutch fleet should
fight us or we them. We have no
quarrel, sure, to the Prince of
Aurange/ Lyttelton to Hatton,
July 2, 1672, Hatton Correspondence,
i. 93. 'The nations had been at
war,' writes Temple later (Works, ii.
245), 'and the quarrel had been
thought on bothe sides rather of the
ministries than of the people.' He
adds, ' No clap of thunder in a fair
frosty day could more astonish the
world than our Declaration of War
against Holland in 1672.' Id. 255.
James was opposed to the war, and
foretold the troubles it would bring
upon Charles. Dartmouth Papers,
Nov. 12, 1681. But the most striking
evidence is in some notes of William-
son, Nov. n, 1671, Cal. St. P. Dom.
1671. 563. l Observe. We go into
a Dutch war now with more dis-
advantage than the last. Quare ?
Now it is taken we go in for the
sake of France, &c. He finds upon
examination the merchants do not
allow they are aggrieved by the
Dutch, but think it is a French trick.
Even the Cavaliers dread a war and
ominate ill. . . . Disaffection among
the seamen/ &c. For the contrast be-
tween this and the national feeling in

N

favour of the war of 1664, see supra
389, note. See Temple's account of
a remarkable interview with Clifford
in November, 1670, Works, ii. 171.

1 See supra 355, notes ; Temple's
Works, ii. 138 ; Evelyn, Aug. 28,
1670; Marvell, Popery, &c., 282;
and Shaftesbury's 'Delenda est Car-
thago' speech at the opening of the
session of Feb. 4, 167-!, ^n which all
these matters are specially com-
plained of. For the Peace of Breda,
now broken, see supra 450, note.
Some of the medals, are given in Me-
dallic Illustrations of British History,

' i. 508 534. See also, on the occasion
of the former war, Pepys, Nov. 28,
1663.

2 See the details of this discredit-
able incident in Temple, ii. 177 ;
Lyttelton's letter of Aug. 21, 1671,
Hatton Correspondence, i. 66 ; Arling-
ton's Letters, ii. 333 ; and Cal. St.
P. Dom. 1671, 426, 433, 437, 483.
Thomas Crow, captain of the Mer-
lin yacht, was sent to the Tower,
Aug. 18, 1671, but released Sept. 15,
for not pressing the matter still
further and compelling the Dutch,
by returning his shot, to break the
articles of peace. Sir W. Temple
was recalled in July, 1671, for 'a

-rougher hand,' e.g. Downing ; but the

548 The History of the Reign

CH. XIV. the coast of England: and one of the king's yachts sailed
by, and expected they should strike sail. They said they
never refused it to any man of war : but they thought that
honour did not belong to such an inconsiderable vessel.
I was then at court : and I saw joy in the looks of those
that were on the secret. Selden had in his Mare clausum
raised this matter so high, that he had made it one of the
chief rights and honours of the crown of England, as the
acknowledgment of the king's empire in the four seas. The
Dutch offered all satisfaction for the future in this matter,
but they would not send their admiral over as a criminal.
While France was treating with England, they continued
to amuse the Dutch : and they so possessed De Groot 1,
then the Dutch ambassador at Paris, or they corrupted him,
into a belief that they had no design on them, that they
were too secure, and depended too much on his adver-
tisements. Yet the States entered into a negotiation, both
with Spain and the emperor, and with the king of Denmark,
the elector of Brandenburgh, and the dukes of Lunen-
306 burg 2. The king of Sweden was yet under age : and the
ministry there desired a neutrality. France and England
sent two ambassadors to them, both men of great probity,
Pomponne and Coventry 3, who were both recalled at the
same time to be secretaries of state. Coventry was a man
of wit and heat, and of spirit and candour. He never gave

latter returned without orders, Feb. 8, tian Majesty, who was the sole motive

167!, reinfecta, 'having disappointed for establishing the Triple Alliance.
our expectations.' Arlington's Letters, 3 Henry Coventry. He was 'an

" • 335 > Temple's Works, ii. 180. ancient member, and had the nice

1 On Pierre de Groot see Pontalis, step of the House, and withal was
Jean de Witt, ii. 109 He was the son wonderfulry witty and a man of
of Hugues de Groot, better known great veracity. And, what renders
as Grotius. it more wretched [sc. that he should

2 Charles tried hard to induce be thus employed in breaking the
Spain to enter the league against the Triple Alliance which he had assisted
Dutch (Spanish Negotiations, ii. 150), to form] is that no man better than
but' His Majesty could not hear with- he understood both the theory and
out the greatest admiration that the practick of honour, andyet couldin so
King of England should begin a war eminent an instance forget it.' Mar-
against his own ally . . . and unite him- veil, Popery. &c.. 274. Coventry was
self for that effect with his most Chris- made Secretary of State on his return.

of King Charles II. 549

bad advices : but when the king followed the ill advices CH. XIV.
that others gave, he thought himself bound to excuse, if
not to justify them *. For this the duke of York com-
mended him much to me : he said in that he was a pattern
to all good subjects, since he defended all the king's
counsels in public, even when he had blamed them most in
private with the king himself. He had accustomed him-
self too much to the northern way of entertainments ; and
this grew upon him with age.

Our court having resolved on a war, did now look out for 1672.
money to carry it on 2. The king had been running in
a great debt ever since his restoration. One branch of it
was the pay of that fleet that had brought him over. | The MS. 154.
main of it had been contracted during the former Dutch
war. The king in order to the keeping his credit had
dealt with some bankers, and had assigned over the
revenue to them. They drove a great trade, and had made
great advantage by it. The king paid them at the rate of
8 per cent. : and they paid those who put money in their
hands only 6 per cent., and had great credit, for payments
were made very punctually. The king had in some
proclamations given his faith that he would continue to
make good all his assignments till the whole debt should
be paid, which was now grown up to almost a million and
a half3. So one of the ways proposed for supplying the
king with money was, that he should stop these payments

1 The recognized principle upon prorogations to Feb. 4, 167^, to give
which all the king's ministers acted. Charles and the Cabal a free hand-
Thus Shaftesbury, writing to Locke The stop of the Exchequer was on
on Nov. 23, 1674, while disclaiming Jan. 2, 167^, the attack on the Smyrna
any responsibility for the stop of Fleet March 13, 14, the Declaration of
the Exchequer, says : ' I hope it will Indulgence on March 15, 167^, and the
not be expected by any that do in Declaration of War March 17, 167^.
the least know me, that I should 3 On June 18, 1667, after the
have discovered the king's secret, or Chatham disaster, when every one
betrayed his business, whatever my rushed to draw out their money,
thoughts were of it.' Christie's Life of Charles issued a proclamation declar-
the First Earl of Shaftesbury , ii. 62, 64. ing the inviolability of the Exchequer

2 Parliament had been prorogued both then and for the future,
on April 22, 1671, and by further

550

The History of the Reign

CH. XIV.

Jan. 2,
167*.

Feb. 17,

167*.

for a year, it being thought certain that by the end of
a year the king would be out of all his necessities, by the
hopes they had of success in the war1. The earl of
Shaftesbury was the chief man in this advice2. He
excused it to me, telling me what advantage the bankers
had made, and how just it was for the king to bring them
to an account for their usury and extortion : and added
that he never meant the stop should run beyond the year.
He certainly knew of it beforehand, and took all his own
money out of the bankers' hands, and warned some of his
friends to do the like3. Lord Lauderdale did about this
time marry lady Dysart upon his lady's death, and she
writ me a long account of the shutting up the exchequer,

1 The king obtained £1,328,526, of
which £416,725 was owned by a sin-
gle banker, Sir R. Vyner. No fewer
than 10.000 depositors suffered from
the stop. It was declared that the
stop should be for one year only,
and that interest should be paid
at the rate of six per cent. No prin-
cipal or interest however was paid
until April, 1677, when Charles issued
letters patent for a perpetual yearly
payment of six per cent, with a
clause for redemption when principal
and arrears were paid off. The pay-
ment of interest was then duly made
until Lady Day, 1683. In 1700 a
decision was obtained by which, after
Dec. 26, 1701, the hereditary excise
was charged with an interest of three
per cent, on the principal until half
the debt should be paid. On the
whole the loss to the bankers and
their creditors amounted to nearly
£3,000,000. Macleod, Theory and
Practice of Banking, i. 368-374.

2 No two facts are more directly
and conclusively proved than that
Ashley— he was not created Earl of
Shaftesbury until April 23, 1672 —
so far from advising this step,
opposed it with the utmost urgency,

and that Clifford was its author. See
the evidence from Temple, North,
Evelyn, Dryden, &c., collected and
dealt with by Christie, Life of the
First Earl of Shaftesbury, 56-71 ;
especially Shaftesbury 's paper of
' Reasons against stopping the due
course of payment in the Exchequer,'
submitted by him to the king. Upon
what evidence Burnet ascribes the
inception of the measure to Shaftes-
bury— unless it be the letter from
the Duchess of Lauderdale mentioned
by him — cannot be ascertained.

3 He told it tp Sir Charles Dun-
combe, who had a very great sum of
his own in the Exchequer, besides
£30,000 of the Marquis of Win-
chester's, that he drew out before
the stop ; which was the reason the
Duke ofBolton espoused his interest
so zealously, upon his impeachment
in King William's reign : and brought
him off by one vote in the House of
Lords ; though it was generally
thought, not without some charge to
Duncombe : besides some engage-
ments in relation to another affair,
then depending between Carey and
Bertie. D.

of King Charles II.

551

as both just and necessary. The bankers were broke ; and CH. XIV.
great multitudes, who had trusted their money in their hands, 30^
were ruined by this dishonourable and perfidious action.
But this gave the king only his own revenue again : so
other ways were to be found for an increase of treasure 1.

By the peace of Breda it was provided, that, in order to
the security of trade, no merchant's ships should be for the
future fallen on, till six months after a declaration of war 2.
The Dutch had a rich fleet coming from Smyrna, and other
parts in the Mediterranean, under the convoy of two men
of war. Our court had advice of this ; and, that at the
same time they might be equally infamous at home and
abroad, Holmes was ordered to lie for them, and to take
them near the Isle of Wight with eight men of war. As he
was sailing thither he met Spragge, who was returning from
the Straits with a squadron of our ships ; and told him he
had sailed along with the Dutch most of the way, and that

1 Arlington gives an account
(Letters, ii. 349) of an interview
between Charles and the bankers in
which, by promises of immediate
payment, he induced them to pay
their depositors, ' and, upon it, the
Discontent is already visibly ap-
peased.' See Temple's note on the
loss of credit to the Exchequer, with
his reference to the seizure by
Charles I of the money in the Mint
in 1640, Works, ii. 232 ; Gardiner,
Hist, of Engl. ix. 170. There is a
curious passage upon one effect, or
supposed effect, of the closing of the
Exchequer in a letter of Lyttelton,
Hatton Correspondence, i. 77 : ' They
begin already to find one good effect
of breaking ye banquiers in ye
countrie, for it makes money to be
more plentifull there up on this ac-
count, that all receivers of publike,
and allmost private, revenues that
were considerable, sent up all the
money they could make into a
somme hither, which lay at interest ;

. . . and now they have not that
way, neither to secure it nor make
the advantage, they are content to
let it lie in the countrey; and un-
doubtedly, my Lord, it will inhance
the value of Land everywhere.' Sir
Ralph Verney held the same view ;
Verney MSS., Jan. 5, 167^.

2 See Pontalis, Jean de Witt, ii.
261. Charles, who had already
seized Dutch vessels in British ports,
declared to Meerman, the Dutch
Ambassador, his resolve to regard
them everywhere as liable to seizure ;
and the attack on the Smyrna fleet
took place two days later. MarvelJ,
Popery, &c., 277. The Dutch de-
clared their intention of observing
the terms of the treaty, mentioned
by Burnet, and refused to retaliate.
The declaration of war was published
March 17. Id. 260. See MarvelFs
story of the council clock being put
forward for the purpose, Popery, &c.,
282, and id. 277.

552

The History of the Reign

CH. XIV. they would pass within a day or two. Holmes thought he
., —7- was much too strong for them ; so he did not acquaint

March 13, ' f 1

14, 167^. Spragge with his design : for if he had stopped him to
assist in the execution, probably the whole fleet had been
taken, which was reckoned worth a million and a half.
When they came up, Holmes fell upon them : but their
convoy did their part so well, that not only the whole fleet
sailed away, while they kept him in play, but they them-
selves got off at last, favoured by a mist : and there were
only two ships taken, of so small a value, that they were
not worth the powder that was spent in the action. This
was a breach of faith, such as even Mahometans and pirates
would have been ashamed of: the unsuccessfulness of it
made it appear as ridiculous as it was base. Holmes was
pressed to put it on the Dutch refusing to strike sail ; yet
that was so false, and there were so many witnesses to it,
that he had not the impudence to affirm it 1.

To crown all, a declaration was ordered to be set out
suspending the execution of all penal laws, both against
papists and nonconformists 2. Papists were no more to be

March 15,
1671.

1 Everyone concerned in this affair
spoke of it afterwards with shame.
See the opinions of Ossory and
Sandwich as related by Evelyn,
March 12, 167^, July 26, 1680; May
31, 1672; Sheffield's Memoirs, ii. 10.
Danby, however, states that it was
carried out ' by the concurrent view
of us all.' Danby Papers (Brit. Mus.
Add. MSS., 2,305), f. 25. Upon its
' unsuccessfulness,' see Marvell,
Popery, &c., 279: 'All the prize that
was gotten sufficed not to pay the
chirurgeons and carpenters/ In the
Verney Papers, March 21, occurs the
dry remark, ' Sir R. Holmes was be-
holding to the Dutch that they did
not swallow him up at a bite.'

2 In September, 1671, Owen and
other Nonconformists were in con-
sultation with the king, and a suspen-
sion of the penal laws was expected.

Cal. St. P. Dom. 1671, 464, 554, 562,
581. Petitions, such as that of the
Quakers of Nottingham, doubtless
helped to form the king's resolution.
Id. 594. See also his answer to the
Justices of Lancashire in the Kenyan
MSS., H. M. C. Rep. xiv. App. iv.
95. In the eyes of strong church-
men like Reresby it was 'the greatest
blow that ever was given, since the
king's restoration, to the Church of
England.' Daniel Fleming wrote on
April 3, 1672 : ' Nor find I any
pleased therewith, after such a rate
as the Papists run, and I thinke
they'l so overdo their business as in
turn they'l undo it. Its looked upon
as great a Prerogative act as hath
been done this good while. It's
said to have been shot out of our
grand minister's [? Shaftesbury]
quiver.' Fleming Papers. Upon the

of King Charles II.

553

prosecuted for their way of worship in their own houses ; CH. XIV.
and the nonconformists were allowed to have open meeting
houses, for which they were to take out licenses, and none
were to disturb those who should meet for worship by
virtue of those licenses. Lord Keeper Bridgeman had lost
all credit at court : so they were seeking an occasion to be
rid of him, who had indeed lost all the reputation he had
formerly acquired, by his being advanced to a post of
which he was not capable. He refused to put the seal to
the declaration, as judging it contrary to law. So he was
dismissed 1, and the earl of Shaftesbury was made lord
chancellor 2. Lord Clifford was made lord treasurer :
Arlington and Lauderdale had both of them the garter :
and, as Arlington was made an earl, Lauderdale was made
a duke : and this junto, together with the duke of Buck- 308
ingham, being called the Cabal, it was observed, that Cabal
proved a technical word, every letter in it being the initial

effects of the Indulgence in Oxford,
see Clark, Life of Anthony Wood,
244. To Marvell, who undoubtedly
represented the popular feeling, in-
dulgence of Dissent meant in the
first place indulgence of Popery.
See the remarkable passage in Popery
and Arbitrary Power, 280-282, begin-
ning, ' For it appears at first sight
that men ought to enjoy the same
propriety and protection in their
consciences, which they have in
their lives, liberties, and estates ; '
and Sheldon's letter to the king,
quoted supra 350, note.

1 Bridgeman did not surrender the
seals until Nov. 17, 1672, eight
months later. The cause was his re-
fusal to sign commissions for martial
law and to issue injunctions to stop
suits against bankers by the victims
of the stop of the Exchequer.
North's Life of Lord Guilford, 115;
Examen, 38 ; Charles Hatton to
Lord Hatton, Nov. 19, 1672, Hatton
Correspondence. On the refusal to

put the seal to the declaration, see
Ranke, iii. 526.

2 ' Then came my Lord Shaftes-
bury, like the month of March, as
they say, " in like a lion, out like a
lamb." For he swaggered and va-
poured what asses he would make
of all the counsell at the bar ; but was
soon reduced, as is more fully de-
clared in the Examen.' North's Life
of Guil/ord, ed. Jessopp, 297. Ar-
lington had hoped for the Lord Trea-
surership. Upon Clifford's double-
dealing in the matter, see Evelyn for
Aug. 18, 1673 and Clarke's Life of
James //, i. 482. With respect to
Lauderdale, it is surprising to read
in a letter of Courtin to Pomponne,
Jan. 14, 1677, tnat ne was then
regarded, even by his enemies, as a
man with clean hands so far as
French money was concerned As,
however, in the case of Arlington,
the bribery seems to have been done
through his wife. Forneron, Louise
de Keroualle, 136.

554 The History of the Reign

CH. XIV. letter of those five, Clifford, Ashley, Buckingham, Arlington,
and Lauderdale. They had all of them great presents
from France, besides what was openly given them : for the
French ambassador gave them all a picture of the king of
France set in diamonds, to the value of 3ooo/. Thus was
the nation, and our religion, as well as the king's faith and

MS. 155. honour, set to sale, and sold 1. | Lord Shaftesbury resolved
to recommend himself to the confidence of the court by
a new strain never before thought of. He said, the writs
for choosing the members of the house of commons might
be issued out in the intervals of a sessions ; and the elections
made upon them were to be returned into chancery, and
settled there. So the writs were issued out ; a and some •
elections were made upon them 2 a. The house of commons
intended to have impeached him for this among other
things : but he had the foresight and skill both to see it and
to prevent it. When the declaration for toleration was
published, great endeavours were used by the court to
persuade the nonconformists to make addresses and com-
pliments upon it. Few were so blind as not to see what
was aimed at by it.

The duke was now known to be a papist3, and the

a substituted for but whether any elections were made upon them, and
returned, I cannot tell.

1 'These five men agreed in wish- nanter' had become 'the champion \

ing to strengthen the royal preroga- of the English hierarchy.1 Marvell, '

tive by moderating the Uniformity Nostradamus Prophecy, 31. The

laws, with the help of France, and Catholic section of the Cabal was

during the excitement caused by a anxious to avoid Parliament, while

foreign war ; but otherwise they Buckingham and Shaftesbury desired

were attached to widely different it to meet. Lauderdale was guided

principles.' Ranke, iii. 520. The solely by the king's personal desires,

fierce Catholicism of Clifford and the The Cabal used to meet at his house

Catholic sympathies of Arlington at Ham.

were irreconcilable with the opinions 2 There were; but the persons

of the other three. Ranke speaks were not admitted to sit, and other

of Lauderdale as a Presbyterian : but writs were ordered for those places

he had utterly repudiated the title by the House of Commons. O. Parl.

from the moment that it was no Hist. iv. 507.

longer necessary for his political 3 His conversion was known to

I prospects. The 'old Scotch Cove- the king in i66f. Clarke, Life of

of King Charles II. 555

duchess was much suspected ; yet the presbyterians came CH. XIV.
in a body, and Dr. Manton, in their name, thanked the
king for it ; which offended many of their best friends.
There was also an order to pay the more eminent men
among them a yearly pension, of fifty pounds to most of
them, and of an hundred pounds a year to the chief of the
party. Baxter sent back his pension, and would not touch
it, but most of them took it. All this I say upon Dr.
Stillingfleet's word, who assured me he knew the truth of it,
and in particular he told me that Pool, who wrote the
Synopsis of the Critics, confessed to him that he had fifty
pounds for two years. Thus the court hired them to be
silent : and the greatest part of them was very silent and
compliant1. But now the pulpits were full of a new strain.
Popery was every where preached against, and the authority
of laws was much magnified. The bishops, he of London 2
in particular, charged the clergy to preach against popery,
and to inform the people aright in the controversies be-
tween us and the church of Rome. This alarmed the court
as well as the city and the whole nation. Clifford began
to shew the heat of his temper, and seemed a sort of
'a enthusiast for popery. The king complained to Sheldon
of this preaching on controversy, as done on purpose to
inflame the people, and to alienate them from him and his
government. Upon this, he called some of the clergy 309
together, to consider what answer he should make the king,
if he pressed him any further on that head. Tillotson was

James II, ii. 440. James states (id. * Dr. Calamy, in the Historical
441), that on Jan. 25 of the same Account of My own Life, ii. 469, coin-
year Charles declared himself of the plains of this reflection on the Non-
same mind to Arundel, Arlington, conformists, if silence with regard
and Clifford. Manton had been im- to the Papists is intended by it, and
prisoned under the Five Mile Act because the writings of Pool, Clark-
since 1670, supra 401, note. Upon son, and the Morning Exercise , against
Baxter's refusal to take the pension, Popery, printed in 1675, within three
see Hamilton, Life of Baxter, 355. years of the time, show it, he says, to
See also Ranke, iii. 526. One nota- have been altogether unmerited. R.
ble prisoner, John Bunyan, gained a Henchman was Bishop of London
his freedom now, May 8, 1672. from 1664 to 1675.

556

The History of the Reign

March 31,
167!.

CH. XIV. one of these : and he suggested this answer, that, since the
king himself professed the protestant religion, it would be
a thing without a precedent that he should forbid his clergy
to preach in defence of a religion which they believed,
while he himself said he was of it. But the king never
renewed the motion1.

While things were in this fermentation, the duchess of
York died. It was observed that for fifteen months before
that time she had not received the sacrament, and that upon
all occasions she was excusing the errors that the church of
Rome was charged with, and was giving them the best
colours they were capable of2. An unmarried clergy was
also a common topic with her. Morley had been her father
confessor : for, he told me she practised secret confession to
him from the time that she was twelve year old : and, when
he was sent away from the court, he put her in the hands
of Blanford, who died bishop of Worcester 3. He also
told me, that upon the reports that were brought him of
her slackness in receiving the sacrament, she having been
for many years punctual to once a month, he had spoke

1 Of the evasions of the king at
this time from declaring himself a
Roman Catholic, according to his
own illusory proposal, for the pur-
pose of obtaining money from France,
before he should join them in a war
with the Dutch, Dr. Lingard, in his
History of England, xii, gives this
entertaining account. ' A year later,'
he adds, ' Louis returned to the same
subject, and Charles objected reli-
gious scruples, which made him de-
sirous of consulting some celebrated
theologian, but a theologian also
skilled in chemistry, that the subject
of their conversations might be sup-
posed to be his favourite science.
[This was in March, i66|. The
person sent was the Abbe Pregnani,
supra 167, 350, notes.] Soon after-
wards he determined to make the
celebration of mass in English and

the administration of the sacrament
under both forms the indispensable
conditions of his conversion. But
Louis was then satisfied : he had
obtained his purpose of drawing the
king into the war, and therefore
ceased to call for a declaration, which
must have rendered him a useless
and burthensome ally.' R.

2 James had admitted her conver-
sion to the king in December, 1670.
Clarke's Life of James II, i. 452.
Cf. supra 299. For her ' motives for
embracing the Catholic Faith/ Aug.
20, 1670, see Fairfax Correspondence,
ii. 268. In the Cal. St. P. Dom. 1670,
606, there are touching letters of re-
monstrance to her and to James from
Clarendon.

3 He was at that time Bishop of
Oxford. R.

of King Charles II. 557

plainly to her about it, and had told her what inferences CH.'XIV.
were made upon it. She pretended ill health and business ;
but protested to him she had no scruples with relation to
her religion, and was still of the church of England ; and
assured him that no popish priest had ever taken the con-
fidence to speak to her of those matters. He took
a solemn engagement of her, that if scruples should arise
in her mind she would let him know them, and hear what
he should offer to her upon all of them. And he protested
to me, that to her death she never owned to him that she
had any scruples, though she was for some days enter-
tained by him at Farnham, after the date of the paper
which was afterwards published in her name. All this
passed between him and me, upon the duke's shewing me
that paper all writ in her own hand, which was afterwards
published by Maimburg. He would not let me take a copy
of it, but he gave me leave to read it twice ; and I went
immediately to Morley, and gave him an account of it,
from whom I had all the particulars already mentioned.
And upon that he concluded, that that unhappy princess
had been prevailed on to set lies under her hand, and to
pretend that these were the grounds of her conversion.
A long decay of health came at last to a quicker crisis
than had been apprehended 1. All of the sudden she fell
into the agony of death. Blanford was sent for to prepare
her for it, and to offer her the sacrament. Before he could
come, the queen came in and sat by her. He was modest 310
and humble even to a fault ; so he had not presence of
mind enough to begin prayers, which probably would have
driven the queen out of the room ; but that not being done,
she, pretending kindness, would not leave her. The bishop
spoke but little, and fearfully2. He happened to say he
hoped she continued still in the truth : upon which she

1 For one supposed cause of her formed by the duke that she had
death, see M.arve\\, Advice to a Painter, been reconciled to the Church of
42 Rome. See Clarke's Life of James

2 He had just before been in- //, i. 453. R.

558 The History of the Reign

CH. XIV. asked, What is truth : and | then, her agony increasing, she
M<^~7~6 repeated the word truth, truth1, very often, and died in
a few minutes, very little beloved or lamented. Her
haughtiness had raised her many enemies. She was indeed
a firm and a kind friend : but the change of her religion
made her friends reckon her death rather a blessing than
a loss at that time to them all. Her father, when he
heard of her shaking in her religion, was more troubled at
it than at all his own misfortunes. He writ her a very
good and long letter upon it, inclosed in one to the duke ;
but she was dead before it came into England. And thus
I have set down all that I know concerning the fatal
alliance with France, and our preparations for the second
Dutch war.

CHAPTER XV.

HISTORY OF THE DUTCH PREVIOUS TO THE SECOND
DUTCH WAR.

BUT that I may open the scene more distinctly, I will
give as particular an account as I was able to gather of the
affairs of the States of Holland at this time ; and because
this was the fifth great crisis under which the whole pro-
testant religion was brought, I will lead my reader through
a full account of them all, since I may probably lay things
before him that he may otherwise pass over, without
making due reflections on them.

The first crisis was, when Charles V by defeating the
duke of Saxony, and the getting him and the landgrave of
Hesse into his hands, had subdued the Smalcaldick league,
in which the strength of the protestant religion did then
consist ; that was weakened by the succeeding deaths of

1 From a source usually accurate death is very terrible.' Dr. Denton

and well-informed on details of this to Sir R. Verney, Verney MSS.,

kind we hear that her last words April 6, 167^.
were : ' Duke, Duke, death is terrible,

of King Charles II. 559

Henry VIII and Francis I. Upon that defeat, all sub- CHAP. XV.

mitted to the emperor : only the town of Magdeburg stood

out. The emperor should either not have trusted Maurice,

or have used him better ; but it seems that he reckoned

Maurice had neither religion nor honour, since his ambition

had made him betray his religion and abandon his party.

When he had got the electorate, he made himself sure of

the army, and entered into an alliance with France, and the

other princes of the empire, and made so quick a turn on

the emperor, that he had almost surprised him at Inchsprick,

and of a sudden overturned all that design upon which the

emperor had been labouring for many years. This ended

in the edict of Passau, which settled the peace of Germany

for that time.

The second crisis was towards the end of queen Mary's 311
reign, when the protestant religion seemed extinguished in
England ; and the two cardinals of Lorrain and Granvell,
then the chief ministers of the two crowns, designed a peace
for that very end, that their masters might be at leisure to
extirpate heresy, which was then spreading in both their
dominions. But after they had formed their scheme queen
Mary died, and was succeeded by queen Elizabeth in
England. Soon after that the king of France was accident-
ally killed : so that kingdom fell under a long continuance
of a minority and of civil wars. And the Netherlands felt
from thence, and from England, such encouragement, that
they made the longest and bravest resistance that is to be
found in all history, which was in a great measure owing to
the obstinate and implacable cruelty of Philip II, and his
great distance from the scene of the war, and was past all
possibility of being made up, by reason of his perfidious
breach of all agreements, and his using those that served
him well in so base a manner as he did both the duke of
Alva and the prince of Parma a.

The third crisis lasted from 1585 of that century to the

a After a long and expenseful war, he ivas at last obliged to sue for a truce
struck out.

560 The History of the Reign

CHAP. XV. year 89. Then began the league of France l. The prince
of Parma was victorious in the Netherlands ; the prince of
Orange was murdered ; the States fell under great distrac-
tions ; and Spain entered into a design of dethroning the
queen of England, and putting the queen of Scots in her
stead. In order to that, they were for some years preparing
the greatest fleet that the world had ever seen, which came
to be called the Invincible Armada. All Europe was
amazed at these great preparations, and many conjectures
were made concerning the design of such a vast fleet. Some
thought of Constantinople ; others talked of Egypt, in
conjunction of the emperor of the Abissens [Abyssinians] ;
but that which was most probable, was that king Philip in-
tended to make a great effort, and put an end to the war of
the Netherlands in one campaign. At last the true intent
of it was found out. Walsingham's chief spies were priests :
he used always to say, an active but a vicious a priest was the
best spy in the world. By one of these he had advice that
the king of Spain had fixed on a resolution with relation
to his fleet ; but that it was not yet communicated to any
of his ministers in foreign courts 2. The king himself had
indeed writ a letter about it to the pope, but it was not
entered into any office : so this was all that the intelligence
from Madrid could discover. Upon this one was sent to
Venice, from whence the correspondence with Rome was
held ; and at Rome it was found out that one of the pope's
312 chief confidants had a mistress, to whom twenty thousand
crowns were given for a sight and copy of that letter. The
copy was sent over soon after Christmas, in the winter
[i5]86. By it the king of Spain had acquainted the pope,
that the design of his fleet was to land in England, to

a substituted for lewd.

1 The League was formed at Join- 2 See this story, somewhat

villeonthelastdayofi684. Williamof differently told, in Welwood, Me-

Orange was murdered July 10, 1584. moirs, 9-11.
Antwerp capitulated Aug. 17, 1585.

of King Charles II. 561

destroy queen Elizabeth and heresy, and to set the queen of CHAP. XV.
Scots on the throne. In this he had the concurrence of the
house of Guise : and he also depended on the king of Scot-
land. This proved fatal to the queen of Scots. It is true
king James sent one Stewart, the ancestor of the lord
Blantyre, who was then of his bedchamber, with an earnest
and threatening message to queen Elizabeth for saving his
mother1. But in one of the intercepted letters of the
French ambassadors then | in Scotland, found among MS 157.
Walsingham's papers, it appears that the king, young as he
then was, was either very double, or very inconstant in his
resolutions. The French ambassador assured him that
Stewart had advised the queen to put a speedy end to that
business, which way she pleased ; and that for his master's
anger, he would soon be pacified if she would but send him
dogs and deer. The king was so offended at this, that he
said he would hang him up in his boots, as soon as he came
back ; yet when he came back, it was so far from that that
he lay all that night in the bedchamber 2. As for the
pompous embassy that was sent from France to protest
against it, Maurier has told a very probable story of

1 A letter from the king to Archi- the contrary them to be malicious
bald Douglas, dated in October, 1586, impostors, as surely they are.' R.
expresses great impatience, that he '2 Archbishop Spottiswoode, in his
should earnestly exert himself in History of the Church of Scotland,
favour of his mother, declaring, that says, that when Queen Elizabeth un-
if her life should be taken, he would derstood that her messenger, whom
have no more to do with the in- she had sent with a letter to the
struments of her death. See Ellis, king, excusingthe fact of his mother's
Original Letters, 3rd Series, 14. Let. death, 'was returned without au-
222. The 224th Letter is a long and dience, she laboured by her minis-
importunate one from the king to ters, of whom she was ever well
Queen Elizabeth herself on the same furnished, to pacify his mind, and
subject, in which he seems to be divert him from the war he had
aware, or at least fearful, that his intended. These working privately
wishes were misrepresented. For with the king's chief counsellors,
he thus concludes : ' But in case any and such of his chamber as he was
do vaunt themselves to know further known to affect, dealt so as they
of my mind in this matter, than my kept off things from breaking forth
ambassadors do, who indeed are fully into open hostility, which was every
acquainted therewith, I pray you not day expected.' Book 6, 359. R.
to take me to be a camelion, but by

VOL. I. O O

562

The History of the Reign

CHAP. XV. Henry Ill's writing a letter with them to the queen, advising
her to proceed with all haste to do that which the embassy
was sent to prevent. He saw the house of Guise built a great
part of their hopes on the prospect of their cousin's coming
to the crown of England, which would cut off all the
hopes the house of Bourbon had of assistance from thence.
I have seen an original letter of the earl of Leicester's to
the earl of Bedford, that had married his sister, and was
then governor of Berwick, telling him that, how high soever
the French ambassadors had talked in their harangues upon
that occasion, calling any proceeding against the queen of
Scots an open indignity as well as an act of hostility against
France, since she was queen dowager of France, yet
all this was only matter of form and decency, that was
extorted from the king of France ; and how high soever
they might talk, they were well assured he would do
nothing upon it. So that unfortunate queen fell at that
time, by reason of the Spanish preparations to conquer
England, under the pretence of setting her on the throne ;
and died much more decently than she had lived, in
February [i5\fy\

But the court of England reckoned that if king Philip's
313 fleet was in a condition to conquer England, he would not
abandon the design for her being put out of the way, and
that he certainly intended to conquer it for himself, and
not for another. So orders were given to make all possible
haste with a fleet. Yet they were so little provided for

1 There is one particular circum-
stance of her life, that I do not re-
member any of her advocates to
have mentioned, which is, that
during her being in England, which
was from the twenty-sixth year of
her age to the forty-fifth, there was
not the least imputation upon her
of any commerce of irregular amours
here ; though from the frequent
accession of men to her, she was
not without opportunities enough

for it. The story of the Countess
of Shrewsbury's jealousy of her hus-
band's having that intercourse with
her, wras believed by nobody, and
thought to be a piece of malice only
in that strange woman. As to the
necessity, and indeed justice, of the
proceedings against the Queen of
Scots, see the Hatfield Papers, espe-
cially the second volume, lately
published. O. See Cal. Hatfald
MSS., H.M. C. Rep.

of King Charles II. 563

such an invasion, that, though they had then twenty good CHAP. XV.

ships upon the stocks, it was not possible to get them in

a condition to serve that summer: and the design of Spain

was to sail over in [15] 87. So, unless by corruption or

any other method, the attempt could be put off for that

year, there was no strength ready to resist so powerful

a fleet. But when it seemed not possible to divert the

present execution of so great a design, a merchant of

London, to their surprise, undertook it1. He was well

acquainted with the state of the revenue of Spain, with

all their charge, and all that they could raise. He knew all

their fonds were so swallowed up, that it was impossible

for them to victual and set out their fleet, but by their

credit in the bank of Genoa. So he undertook to write to

all the places of trade, and to get such remittances made

on that bank, that he should by that means have it so

entirely in his hands that there should be no money current

there equal to the great occasion of victualling the fleet of

Spain. He reckoned the keeping such a treasure dead in

his hands till the season of victualling was over would be

a loss of 4o,ooo/. ; and at that rate he would save England.

He managed the matter with such secrecy and success that

the fleet could not be set out that year. At so small

a price, and with so skilful a management, was the nation

saved at that time. This, it seems, was thought too great

a mystery of state to be communicated to Cambden, or to

be published by him, when the instructions were put in his

hands for writing the history of that glorious reign. But

the famous Boyle, earl of Cork, who had then a great share

in the affairs of Ireland, came to know it, and told it to

two of his children, from whom I had it. The story is so

coherent, and agrees so well with the state of affairs at that

time, that it seems highly credible ; and if it is true, it is

1 There is a tradition in the Char- merchant in London. Bowyer's MS.

terhouse, that this was Thomas Note. The same account is given in

Sutton, esquire, the founder of that Dr. Bearcroft's Life of Sutton, u,

hospital, at that time the richest published in 1737. R.

O O 2

5<H

The History of the Reign

CHAP. XV. certainly one of the curiousest passages in our whole English
history. I return from this digression, which I hope will
be no unacceptable entertainment to the reader. It is well
known how the design of the Armada miscarried : and soon
after that, the duke of Guise was stabbed : not long after,
Henry III was also stabbed, and Henry IV succeeded,
who broke the league, with which the great designs of
Spain fell to the ground. So happily did this third crisis
pass over.

314 The fourth crisis was from the battle of Prague to the
1620.' 7ear J^SO, in which, as was told in the first book, not only
the elector Palatine fell, but almost all the empire came
under the Austrian yoke. All attempts to shake it off
proved unsuccessful, and fatal to those who undertook it, till
the young and great king of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus,
engaged in it. The wars of the Rochelle, together with
the loss of that important place, seemed to threaten the
destruction of the protestants of France. England fell
under those unhappy jealousies, which begun a disjointing
between the king and his people. And the States were
much pressed by the Spaniards under Spinola. Breda was
taken. But the worst of all was a quarrel that was raised
between prince Maurice and Barneveld 1, that will require
a fuller discussion than was offered in the former book. All
MS. 158. agree that William prince of Orange was one of the | great-
est men in story, who, after many attempts for the recovery
of the liberty of the provinces, was in conclusion successful,
and formed that republic. In the doing it he was guilty of
one great error, if he was not forced to it by the necessity
of his affairs ; which was the settling a negative in every
one of the towns of Holland, in the matters of religion, of
taxes, and of peace and war. It had been much safer if it
had been determined that such a number as two thirds in
the conclave must concur, by which the government would

Nov. i,
1628.

1625.

have been much stronger.

Some thought that he brought

Cf. supra 17.

of King Charles If. 565

in so many little towns to balance the greater, of whom he CHAP. XV.
could not be sure ; whereas he could more easily manage
these smaller ones. Others have said that he was forced
to it, to draw them to a more hearty concurrence in the
war, since they were to have such a share of the govern-
ment for the future. But as he had settled it, the corruption
of any one small town may put all the affairs of Holland in
great disorder. He was also blamed for raising the power
of the stadtholder so high, that in many regards it was
greater than the power of the counts of Holland had been ;
but this was balanced by its being made elective, and by
the small appointments that he took to himself. It seems
he designed to have settled that honour in his family: for
after his death there were reversal letters found among his
papers from the duke of Anjou when the provinces invited
him to be their prince, by which he engaged himself to
leave Holland and Zealand in the prince's hands. Before
he died he had in a great measure lost the affections of the
clergy : because he was very earnest for the toleration of
papists, judging that necessary for the engaging men of all
persuasions in the common concerns of liberty, and for
encouraging the other provinces to come into the union.
a This was much opposed by the preachers in Holland, 315
who were for more violent methods a. Those who but a few
years before had complained of the cruelty of the church
of Rome, were no sooner delivered from that than they
began to call for the same ways of prosecuting those who
were of the other side. This made that great prince lose
ground with the zealots of his own side before he died.
With him all their affairs sunk so fast, that they saw the
necessity of seeking protection elsewhere. Their ministers
did of themselves, without the concurrence of the States,
send to queen Elizabeth, to desire her to take them under
her protection, on such terms as she should prescribe ; and
though the States were highly offended at this, yet they

ft substituted for There is a strange edge OH the spirits of clergymen of
all sorts and sides : they do always go into violent and cruel methods.

566 The History of the Reign

CHAP. XV. durst not at that time complain of it, much less punish it,
but were forced by the clamours of their people to follow
an example that was so irregularly set them. This I had
from Halewyn of Dort, of whom I shall have occasion to

Dec. 1585. write afterwards *. When the queen sent over the earl of
Leicester, with a new title, and an authority greater than
was either in the counts of Holland or in the stadtholder,
by the name of supreme governor, he as soon as he landed
at Flushing went first to church, where he ordered prayers
to be offered up for a blessing on his counsels, and desired
that he might receive the sacrament next day: and there
he made solemn protestations of his integrity and zeal.
This pleased the people so much, that Barneveld and the
States at the Hague thought it necessary to secure them-
selves from the effects of such a threatening popularity:
so they sent for the count, afterwards prince, Maurice, who
was then at Leyden, not yet eighteen, and chose him
stadtholder of Holland and Zealand. There had been no
provision made against that in their treaty with the earl of
Leicester, yet he was highly offended at it. I will go no
further into the errors of his government, and the end that
the queen put to it ; which she did as soon as it appeared
that he was incapable of it, and was beginning to betray
and sell their best places.

Prince Maurice and Barneveld continued long in a perfect
conjunction of counsels : till upon the negotiations for
a peace, or at least for a truce, they differed so much, that
their friendship ended in a most violent hatred, and a jealousy
that could never be made up 2. Prince Maurice was for
carrying on the war, which set him at the head of a great
army ; and he had so great an interest in the conquests
they made, that for that very reason Barneveld infused it
into the States, that they were now safe, and needed not
fear the Spaniards any more ; so there was no reason for
continuing the war. Prince Maurice, on the other hand,

1 There are many notices of Hale- 2 Pontalis, Jean de Witt, i. 35 et

wyn later ; see especially infra 586. seq.

of King Charles II. 567

said their persecuted brethren in the popish provinces CHAP. XV.
wanted their help to set them at liberty. The work seemed 31^
easy, and the prospect of success was great. In opposition
to this it was said, since the seven provinces were now safe,
why should they extend their territories ? Those who
loved their religion and liberty in the other provinces
might come and live among them. This would increase
both their numbers and their wealth : whereas the conquest
of Antwerp might prove fatal to them : besides that both
France and England interposed. They would not allow
them to conquer more, nor become more formidable. All
the zealous preachers were for continuing the war, and those
that were for peace were branded as men of no religion,
who had only carnal and political views. While this was
in debate every where, the disputes began between Arminius
and Gomarus, two famous professors at Leyden, concerning
the decrees of God and the efficacy of grace ; in which
those two great men, Maurice and Barneveld, went in upon
interest to lead | the two parties, from which they both MS. 159.
differed in opinion. Prince Maurice in private always talked
of the side of the Arminians : and Barneveld believed pre-
destination firmly ; but as he left reprobation out in his
scheme, so he was against the unreasonable severity with
which the ministers drove those points, and he found the
Arminians the better patriots as he thought. The other
side out of their zeal were for carrying on the war, so that
they called all others indifferent as to all religions, and
charged them as favourers of Spain and popery. I will go
no further into the differences that followed concerning the
authority of the states general over the several provinces.
It is certain that every province is a separated state, and
has an entire sovereignty within itself, and that the states
general are only an assembly of the deputies of the several
provinces, but without any authority over them. Yet it was
pretended that extraordinary diseases required extraordi-
nary remedies : and prince Maurice, by the assistance of
a party that the ministers made for him among the people,

568 The History of the Reign

CHAP. XV. engaged the states general to assume an authority over
the province of Holland, and to put the government in
new hands. A court was erected by the same authority,
to judge those who had been formerly in the magistracy.
Barneveld was accused, together with Grotius and some
others, as fomenters of sedition, and for raising distractions
May 13, in the country. He was condemned, and beheaded : others
were condemned to perpetual imprisonment ; and every
one of the judges had a great gold medal given them, in
317 the reverse of which the synod of Dort was represented,
which was called by the same authority. I saw one of
these medals in the possession of the posterity of one of
those judges. King James assisted prince Maurice in all
this : so powerfully do the interests of princes carry them
to concur in things that are most contrary to their own
inclinations. The prevailing passion of that king was his
hatred of the puritans. That made him hate these opinions
into which the others went with great heat : and he en-
couraged all that were of the Arminian persuasion in his
own dominions ; yet he helped to crush them in Holland 1.
He hated Barneveld upon another score, for his getting the
cautionary towns out of his hands : and, according to the
nature of impotent passions, this carried him to procure
his ruin. After this victory that prince Maurice had got
over the party that opposed him, he did not study to carry
it much further. He found quickly how much he had lost
the hearts of the people, who had before that time made
him their idol, and now looked at him with horror. He
studied to make up matters the best he could, that he
might engage the States in the Bohemian war ; but all that
was soon at an end. It was plain that he had no design

••• o

upon their liberty, though he could not bear the opposition
that he began to meet with from a free state.

His death put an end to all jealousies, and his brother,
prince Henry Frederick, quickly settled the disputes of
Arminianism by the toleration that was granted them, and

1 See supra 17, 20.

of King Charles II. 569

he was known to be a secret favourer of their tenets. He CHAP. XV.
conducted their armies with so much success, and left them
so much at liberty as to all their state affairs, that all the
jealousies which his brother's conduct had raised were quite
extinguished by him. The States made him great presents :
he became very rich ; and his son had the survivance of
the stadtholdership, but he had more of his uncle's fire in
him than of his father's temper. He opposed the peace of
Munster all he could. The States came then to see that
they had continued too long in their alliance with France
against Spain, since France had got the ascendant by too
visible a superiority ; so that their interest led them now
to support Spain against France. Prince William fell to be
in ill terms with his mother1; and she, who had great credit
with the States, set up such an open opposition to her son,
that the peace of Munster was in a great measure the effect
of their private quarrel. Prince William, being married
into the royal family of England, did all he could to embroil
the States with the new commonwealth, but he met with
such opposition, that he, finding the States were resolved to
dismiss a great part of their army, suffered himself to be 318
carried to violent counsels. I need not enlarge on things
that are so well known as his sending some of the States
prisoners to Lovestein, and his design to change the govern-
ment of Amsterdam, which was discovered by the postboy,
who gave the alarm a few hours before the prince could
get thither.

These things, and the effects that followed on them, are
but too well known : as is also his death, which followed Nov. 6,
a few weeks after, in the most unhappy time possible for
the princess royal's2 big belly. For as she bore her son
a week after his death, in the eighth month of her time, so Nov. r.j.
he came into the world under great disadvantages. The
States were possessed with great jealousies of the family, as
if their aspiring to subdue the liberties of their country was

1 Amelie de Solms.

2 Mary, daughter of Charles I. Cf. supra 300.

The History of the Reign

CHAP. XV. inherent, and inseparable from it. His private affairs were
also in a very bad condition : two great jointures went out
of his estate to his mother and grandmother, besides a vast
debt that his father had contracted to assist the king.
MS. 160. And who could have thought that an | infant, brought into
the world with so much ill health, and under so many ill
circumstances, was born for the preservation of Europe and of
the protestant religion ? So unlike do the events of things
prove to their first appearances. And since I am writing
of his birth, I will set down a story much to the honour
of astrology, how little regard soever I my self have to it.
I had it from the late queen's own mouth, and she directed
me to some who were of the prince's court in that time,
who confirmed it to me. An unknown person put a paper
in the old princess's hands, which she took from him thinking
it was a petition. When she looked into it, she found it
was her son's nativity, together with the fortunes of his life,
and a full deduction of many accidents, which followed
very punctually as they were predicted. But that which
was most particular was, that he was to have a son by
a widow, and was to die of the small-pox in the twenty-fifth
year of his age. So those who were apt to give credit to
predictions of that sort fancied that the princess royal was
to die, and that he was upon that to marry the widow of
some other person. It was a common piece of raillery
in the court, upon the death of any prince, to ask what
a person his widow was. But when he was taken ill of the
small-pox, then the deciphering the matter was obvious,
and it struck his fancy so much that probably it had an ill
effect upon him. Thus was the young prince born ; who

Jan. i66|. was some years after barred by the perpetual edict from all

hopes of arriving at the stadtholdership.

319 The chief error in De Witt's administration was, that he
did not again raise the authority of the council of state,
since it was very inconvenient to have both the legislature
and the execution in the same hands. It seemed necessary
to put the conduct of affairs in a body of men, that should

of King Charles II. 571

indeed be accountable to the States, but should be bred to CHAP. XV.
business. By this means their counsels might be both
quick and secret ; whereas, when all is to be determined by
the States, they can have no secrets, and they must adjourn
often to consult their principals ; so their proceedings must
be slow. During De Witt's ministry, the council of state
was so sunk that it was considered only as one of the forms
of the government. But the whole execution was brought
to the States themselves. Certainly a great assembly is
a very improper subject of the executive power. It is
indeed very proper that such a body should be a check on
those who have the executive power trusted to them. It is
true De Witt found it so ; which was occasioned by reason
of the English ambassador's being once admitted to sit in
that council. They pretend, indeed, that it was only on
the account of the cautionary towns, which gave England
a right to some share in their counsels. After these were
restored, they did not think it decent to dispute the right
of the ambassador's sitting any more there ; but the easier
way was the making that council to signify nothing, and
to bring all matters immediately to the States. It had
been happy for De Witt himself, and his country, if he had
made use of the credit he had in the great turn upon prince
William's death, to have brought things back to the state
in which they had been anciently; since the established
errors of a constitution and government can only be
changed in a great revolution. He set up on a popular
bottom : and so he was not only contented to suffer matters
to go on in the channel in which he found them, but in
many things he gave way to the raising the separated
jurisdiction of the towns, and to the lessening the authority
of the courts at the Hague. This raised his credit, but
weakened the union of the province. The secret of all
affairs, chiefly the foreign negotiations, lay in few hands.
Others, who were not taken into the confidence, threw all
miscarriages on him ; which was fatal to him. The reputa-
tion he had got in the war with England, and the happy

572

The History of the Reign

CHAP. XV. conclusion of it, broke a party that was then formed against
him. After that, he dictated to the States: and all sub-
mitted to him. The concluding the triple alliance in so
short a time, and against the forms of their government,
shewed how sure he was of a general concurrence with
320 every thing that he proposed. In the negotiations between
the States and France and England he fell into great
errors. He still fancied that the king must see his own
interest so visibly in the exaltation of the prince of Orange,
that he reckoned that the worst that could happen was to
raise him to that trust ; since England could not gain so
much by a conjunction with France, as by the king's having
such an interest in their government when his nephew
should be their stadtholder. So he thought he had a sure
reserve to gain England at any time over to them. But he
had no apprehension of the king's being a papist, and of his
design to make himself absolute at home. And he was
amazed to find that, though the court of England had
talked much of that matter of the prince of Orange when
the States were in no disposition to hearken to it, and so
used it as a reproach, or a ground of a quarrel, yet when it
came more in view, they took no sort of notice of it, and
seemed not only cold but even displeased with it. The
prince was left much to himself in his education ; he was
soon let loose to that idleness to which youth is naturally

MS. 161. carried ; nor was he acquainted either with history or
military matters ; yet as his natural reservedness saved him
from committing errors, so his gravity and other virtues
recommended him much to the ministers and to the body
of the people. The family of De Witt and the town of
Amsterdam carried still the remembrance of what was
passed fresh in their thoughts. They set it also up for
a maxim, that the making of a stadtholder was the giving
up their liberty, and that the consequence of it would be
the putting the sovereignty of their country in him, or at
least in his family. The long continuance of a ministry in
one person, and that to so high a degree, must naturally

of King Charles II. 573

raise envy and beget discontent, especially in a popular CHAP. XV.
government 1. This made many become De Witt's enemies,
and by consequence the prince's friends. And the preachers
employed all their zeal to raise the respect of the people
for a family under whom they had been so long easy and
happy.

When he was of full age, it was proposed in so many
places that he should have the supreme command of their
armies and fleets, that De Witt saw the tide was too strong 1672.
to be resisted. So, after he had opposed it long, he pro-
posed some limitations that should be settled previous to
his advancement 2. The hardest of all was, that he should
bind himself by oath never to pretend to be stadtholder,
nor so much as to accept of it though it should be offered
him. These conditions were not of an easy digestion ; yet it
was thought necessary that the prince should be once at the
head of their armies : that would create a great dependence
on him : and if God blessed him with success, it would not 321
be possible to keep him so low as these limitations laid
him. And the obligation never to accept of the stadt-
holdership could only be meant of his not accepting the
offer from any tumultuary bodies of the populace or the
army ; but could not be a restraint on him, if the States
should make the offer freely, since his oath was made to
them, and by consequence it was in their power to release
the obligation that did arise from it to themselves 3. The
court of England blamed him for submitting to such con-
ditions ; but he had no reason to rely much on the advices
of those who had taken so little care of him during ail the
credit they had with the States, while the triple alliance
gave them a great interest in their affairs a. As soon as he

a and much credit with them, struck out.

1 For the vehement feeling against which secured the separation of the
De Witt, as early as June, 1670, see civil and military commands, and
Temple, Works, ii. 119. which was abrogated in July, 1672,

2 He swore to maintain the ' Per- in the Orange reaction which culmi-
petual Edict ' of January, i66| (Pont- nated in the murder of the De Witts,
alis, Jean de Witt, i. 508 ; supra 570), 3 Bad casuist. S. See infra 583.

574 The History of the Reign

CHAP. XV. was brought into the command of the armies, he told me
that he spoke to De Witt, and desired to live in an entire
confidence with him. His answer was cold : so that he saw
he could not depend upon him. When he told me this, he
added that he was certainly one of the greatest men of
the age, and he believed he served his country faithfully1.
De Witt reckoned that the French could not come to
Holland but by the Meuse, and he had taken great care of
the garrison of Maestricht, but very little of those that lay on
the Rhine and the Isel, where the States had many places,
but none of them good. They were ill fortified and ill
supplied ; but most of them were worse commanded, by
men of no courage, nor practice in military affairs, who
considered their governments as places of which they were
to make all the advantage that they could.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE DUTCH WAR IN 1672.

Now I come to give an account of the fifth crisis
brought on the whole reformation, which has been of the
longest continuance, since we are yet in the agitations
of it 2. The design was first laid against the States, but
the method of invading them was surprising and not
looked for. The elector of Cologne was all his life long
a very weak man : yet it was not thought that he could
have been prevailed on to put the French in possession of
his country, and to deliver himself with all his dominions
over into their hands. When he did that, all upon the
Rhine were struck with such a consternation, that there
was no spirit nor courage left. It is true they could not

1 Yet the prince contrived he subsequently protected and advanced

should be murdered. S. It would the ringleaders.

be more correct to say that he took 2 Under the queen and Lord Ox-
no step to prevent the murder ; he ford's ministry. S.

of King Charles II. 575

have made a great resistance. Yet if they had but gained CH. XVI.
a little time, that had given the States some leisure to
look round them, to see what was to be done.

The king of France came down to Utrecht like a land
flood. This struck the Dutch with so just a terror, that
nothing but great errors in his management could have
kept them from delivering themselves entirely up to him.
Never was more applause given with less reason than the
king of France had upon this campaign. His success was 322
owing rather to De Witt's errors, than to his own conduct.
He shewed so little heart as well as judgment in the
management of that run of success 1, that, when that year
is set out, as it may well be, it will appear to be one of
the most infamous of his life * ; though, when seen in a
false light, it appears one of the most glorious in history.
The conquest of the Netherlands at that time might have
been so easily compassed, that if his understanding and
his courage had not been equally defective, he could not
have miscarried in it 3. When his army passed the Rhine, June 12,
upon which so much eloquence and poetry have been l672>
bestowed, as if all had been animated by his presence and
direction, he was viewing it at a very safe distance : where
he took the care that he has always done to preserve
himself. When he came to Utrecht, he had neither the
prince of Conde nor Mr. Turenne to advise with, and so
was wholly left to his ministers. The prince of Conde
was dangerously wounded as he passed the Rhine : and
Turenne was sent against the elector of Brandenburg, who
was coming down with his army, partly to save his own
country of Cleves, but chiefly to assist his allies the Dutch.
So the king had none about him to advise with, but

JA metaphor, but from game- 129 ; Mignet, Negotiations, &c., iv. n.

sters. S. One English regiment, that of Sir

2 Bowyer's transcript has, most Harry Jones, was engaged. Hatton
infamous. Correspondence, July 2,1672. Conde's

3 'An operation of the fourth wound caused his retirement from
order,' is Napoleon's contemptuous the army.

phrase. Memoires de Napoleon, v.

The History of the Reign

CH. XVI. Fomponne and Louvois. When the Dutch sent to him to
MS~r6" know what he demanded, | Pomponne's advice was wise
and moderate, and would in conclusion have brought about
all that he intended. He proposed that the king should
restore all that belonged to the seven provinces, and require
of them only the places that they had without them l ;
chiefly Maestricht, Bois-le-Duc, Breda, and Bergen-op-
zoom : thus the king would maintain an appearance of pre-
serving the seven provinces entire, which the crown of France
had always protected. To this certainly the Dutch would
have yielded without any difficulty. By this he had the
Spanish Netherlands entirely in his power, separated from
Holland and the empire, and might take them whensoever
he pleased. This would have an appearance of modera-
tion, and would stop the motion that all Germany was
now in ; which could have no effect, if the States did not
pay and assist their troops. Louvois, on the other hand,
proposed that the king should make use of the consterna-
tion the Dutch were then in, and put them out of a
condition of opposing him for the future 2. He therefore
advised that the king should demand of them, besides all
that Pomponne moved, the paying a vast sum for the
charge of that campaign ; the giving the chief church in
every town for the exercise of the popish religion ; and
that they should put themselves under the protection of
France, and should send an ambassador every year with

June 30,

1672.

1 I. e. outside the seven provinces,
and known as the 'generality.'

: See the proposed conditions on
both sides, June 30, 1672, in Mignet,
Negotiations, &c ,iv. 33, and Pontalis,
Jean de Witt, ii. 417 422. Louis's
own view is given in his memoir
of the campaign of 1672. Rousset,
Histoire de Louvois, \. 380. Louvois
was ' un homme sans mesure et sans
habilite, le plus grand et le plus
brutal de tous les commis.' For the
change in the policy and conduct of
Louis after the death of the sagacious

Lionne in 1671, see Mignet, Nego-
tiations. &c., Introd. Ixii. No demand
was made for the chief church in
every town, but only for the free
exercise and fitting support of the
Catholic faith. Louis in this fol-
lowed the example of the treaty
made in the spring between the
Protestant Elector of Brandenburg
and the Catholic Count Palatine of
the Rhine. See Lingard's note, xii.
255; Dumont, vii. 171-205. This
article caused the bitterest feeling
in England.

of King Charles II. 577

a medal acknowledging it ; and should enter into no CH. xvi.
treaties or alliances but by the direction of France, or 32~
till his advice was asked and followed. The Dutch ambas-
sadors were amazed when they saw that the demands
rose to so extravagant a pitch. a One of them swooned
away, when he heard them read : he could neither think
of yielding to them, nor see how they could resist them.
There was an article put in for form, that they should
give the king of England full satisfaction; but all the
other demands were made without any concert with Eng-
land, though Lockhart was then following the court.

I say nothing of the sea-fight at Solebay1, in which
De Ruyter had the glory of surprising the English fleet,
bwhen they were thinking less of engaging the enemy,
than of an extravagant preparation for the usual disorders
of the twenty-ninth of May, which he prevented, engaging May 28
them on the twenty-eighth, in one of the most obstinate Ju,ne 7
sea-fights that has happened in our age ; in which the
French took more care of themselves than became gallant
men ; but it was believed they had orders to look on, and
leave the English and Dutch to fight it out, while they
preserved the force of France entire. Ruyter disabled the
ship in which the duke was, whom some blamed for leaving
his ship too soon ; and then his personal courage began first
to be called in question2. The. admiral of the blue squadron

a Beverning who was struck out. b The whole passage (when they

. . . Sandwich on p. 578) substituted for before they had recovered the disorders
of the 2Qth of May ; he also burnt an admiral and a first-rate ship in which
the carl of Sandwich (<Sr*C.).

1 For detailed accounts of this i. passim), had no command in this

terrible battle, see Clarke's Life of campaign. He, however, led the

James II, i. 457, &c., which should fleet in the last great battle off the

be compared with Pontalis, Jean Zealand coast, August 21, 1673.

de Witt, ii. 317, &c. On its place in f. 352.

the history of naval warfare, see 2 Publicly, I suppose the author

Mahan's Influence of Sea Power in means : for see sttpra 391. O.

History, 146. Rupert, whose s>m- Higgons, in his Remarks, 179, gives

pathies were strongly opposed to the following account of the Duke of

France (upon this point see Letters York's behaviour : < The duke's ship

to Sir Joseph Williamson, Camd. Soc. was so disabled, that she lay a wreck

VOL. I. P p

578

The History of the Reign

CH. XVI. was burnt by a fire-ship, after a long engagement with
a Dutch ship much inferior to him in strength. In it the
earl of Sandwich b perished with a great many about him,
who would not leave him, as he would not leave his ship1,

on the water, upon which he went
into the boat ; and though all about
him most earnestly entreated that he
would strike his flag, he would not
consent ; his courage surmounted
his prudence ; he displayed his co-
lours, and with a triumphant bravery
insulted the foe in his cockboat ;
this distinguished him to be there
in person, and exposed him to the
incessant fire from the whole line of
the enemy, who endeavoured to sink
him ; but by a happy temerity he
passed through them all, got on
board a fresh ship, where he hoisted
his flag, restored the fight, and re-
newed his dangers. Whereas, if he
had continued in the disabled ship,
he would have been towed out of
the battle, and falling back behind
the line, have remained in perfect
safety.' This relation is confirmed
by Sheffield, then Lord Mulgrave,
afterwards Duke of Bucks, who was
present at the engagement. His
words are these : ' But the Duke of
York himself had the noblest share
in this day's action ; for when his
ship was so maimed as to be made
incapable of service, he made her
lie by to refit, and went on board
another, that was hotly engaged,
where he kept up his standard, till
she was disabled also, and then left
her for a third, in order to renew
the fight, which lasted from break
of day till sunset.' Duke of Bucking-
ham's Works, ii. 14. Among the
Rawdon Papers lately published,
there is a letter written two days
after Southwold, or Solebay, fight,
in which it is related, that ' on Tues-
day morning, about six of the clock,

both the fleets engaged, and before
ten of the clock the duke's ship, the
Prince, had received sixty broad-
sides, and then being disabled, he
went aboard the Saint Michael \
there he stayed till four in the after-
noon, and then went aboard the
London, and there stayed that night.
The fight continued till eleven next
day, being Wednesday. He went
aboard the Prince again, which was
then mended in all she was dis-
abled ; ' 252. Captain Carleton in
his Memoirs, printed in 1743, who
was himself on board the London,
speaks of the gallantry of the duke's
conduct. [Upon these Memoirs,
which were first published in 1728,
see the article by Col. Parnell in the
English Historical Review for Jan.
1891, where they are proved to be
a fraud. Col. Parnell gives his rea-
sons for attributing the work to
Swift. But in the Academy for May
and June, 1893, vol. xliii, 393, 438,
461, 482, Mr. C. E. Doble has placed
the authorship, almost beyond a
doubt, upon Defoe.] And, finally,
Sir William Coventry's account of
his cool and excellent judgement in
the midst of the dangers of war may
be appealed to, and is worth reading
in Pepys's Diary, June 4, 1664.

1 Sandwich was drowned with
his son. ' His body was found at
least forty miles from the place of
battle, floating upon the waters.'
Lyttelton to Hatton, June 4, 1672,
Haiton Correspondence. There is
another account of the finding of his
body near Harwich, with some
curious details, in the H. M. C. Rep.
ii. 22. In 'Captain Carleton's Me-

of King Charles II. 579

by a piece of obstinate courage, to which he was provoked CH. XVI.
by an indecent reflection the duke made on an advice he
had offered of drawing nearer the shore, and avoiding an
engagement, as if in that he took more care of himself
than of the king's honour. aThe duke of Buckingham
came aboard the fleet: though it was observed that he
made great haste away when he heard the Dutch fleet
was in view. The duke (of York) told me, that he said
to him, since they might engage the enemy quickly he
intended to make sure of another world : so he desired to
know who was the duke's priest, that he might reconcile
himself to the church. The duke told him, Talbot would
help him to a priest ; and he brought one to him. They
were for some time shut up together, and the priest said he
had reconciled him according to their forms. Buckingham,
who had no religion at heart, did this only to recommend
himself to the duke's confidence a.

It may easily be imagined that all things were at this
time in great disorder at the Hague1. The French
possessed themselves of Noerden : and a party had entered
into Muyden, who had the keys of the gates brought to
them, but they, seeing it was an inconsiderable place, not
knowing the importance of it, by the command of the water 324
that could drown all to Amsterdam, flung the keys in the
ditch, and went back to Noerden. But when the conse-
quence of the place was understood, another party was sent
to secure it; but before their return, two battalions were
sent from the prince of Orange, who secured the place, and
by that means preserved Amsterdam, where all were

a All this passage is struck out, but Burnet has written in the margin
afterwards, What is here scored tvas by an error, so it is not to be left out.

mows'1 — see previous note — it is in Evelyn, May 31, 1672. Cf.s«/>/'«397.
stated that the writer was on board * Marvell, writing in June, 1672,
the packet boat when the body was says : ' No man can conceive the
discovered through the flight of gulls state of Holland in this juncture,
hovering over it. For Sandwich's unless he can at the same time con-
curious premonition of death, see ceive an earthquake, an hurricane,
Sheffield's Memoirs, 14. There is a and the deluge.' (Works, ii. 400,
strikingly favourable character of him Grosart's ed.)

P p 2

580 The History of the Reign

CH. XVI. trembling, and thought of nothing but treating and submis-
sion. The States were very near the extremities of despair.
They had not only lost many places, but all their garrisons
in them. Guelder, Overyssel, and Utrecht, were quite lost,
and the bishop of Munster was making a formidable im-
pression on Groningen, and at last besieged it. All these
misfortunes came so thick one after another, that no spirit
was left And, to complete their ruin, a jealousy was
spread through all Holland, that they were betrayed by
those who were in the government ; that De Witt intended
all should perish, rather than the family of Orange should
be set up. Montbas, one of their generals, who married
De Groot's sister, had basely abandoned his post, which

June 12, was to defend the Rhine where the French passed it : and
when he was put in arrest for that, he made his escape, and
went to the French for sanctuary1. Upon this the people
complained loudly : and the States were so puzzled, that
their hearts quite failed them. When they were assembled,
they looked on one another like men amazed, sometimes

MS. 163. all in tears. | Once the Spanish ambassador came, and
demanded audience. And when he was brought in, he
told them, that out of the affection that he bore them, and
the union of his master's interests with theirs, he came to
blame their conduct. They looked sad : a and upon all
occasions they looked like men despairing of their country.
This quite disheartened their people : therefore he advised
them to put on another countenance, to publish that they
had good news, that their allies were in march ; and to
feed their people with probable stories, and so to keep up
their spirits. They thought the advice was seasonable, and
followed it. They sent two ambassadors, Dyckveldt 2 and

a they never appeared in the Vorhaut in their coaches : struck out.

1 The Comte de Montbas was of Witt, ii. 296-299 ; and, upon his

French origin. His Memoires were escape, id. 466. On De Groot, see

published at Cologne in 1673. Upon supra 548.

his failure to defend the passage of '2 Everard van Dyckveldt, born

the Rhine see Pontalis, Jean de 1626, died 1672. Cf. infra 585 ;

of King Charles II. 581

Halewyn, to join with Boreel, who was still in England, to CH. XVI.
try if it was possible to divide England from France. And junCj
the morning in which they were dispatched away, they had l6!2-
secret powers given them to treat concerning the prince of
Orange's being their stadtholder: for lord Arlington had so
oft reproached Boreel for their not doing it, that he in all
his letters continued still to press that on them. When
they came over, they were for form's sake put under a guard ;
yet Boreel was suffered to come to them, and was transported
with joy when they told him what powers they had in that
affair of the prince. And immediately he went to lord 325
Arlington : but came soon back like one amazed, when he
found that no regard was had to that which he had hoped
would have entirely gained the court ; but he was a plain
man, and had no great depth. The others were sent to
Hampton Court, and were told that the king would not
treat separably, but would send over ambassadors to treat
at Utrecht. They met secretly with many in England,
and informed themselves by them of the state of the nation.
They gave money liberally, and gained some in the chief
offices to give them intelligence. The court understanding
that they were not idle, and that the nation was much
inflamed, since all the offers that they made were rejected,
commanded them to go back. The duke of Buckingham
and lord Arlington were ordered to go to Utrecht ; and, to July,
give the nation some satisfaction, lord Halifax was sent
over afterwards, but he was not put on the secret 1. The
Dutch, hearing that their ambassadors were come over
without making peace with England, ran together in great
numbers to Maesland Sluice, and resolved to cut them in
pieces at their landing ; for they heard they were at the
Brill. But as they were crossing the Maes, a little boat
met them, and told them of their danger, and advised them

Pontalis, Jean de Witt, ii. 375. Upon for the continuance of the war until

Boreel see supra 146, note. the places stipulated for England in

1 Nor was Buckingham, though the Treaty of Dover should be handed

the ostensible head of the mission. over. See Arlington's Letters, ii.

An agreement was made with Louis 378 ; Pontalis, Jean de Witt, 429.

582 The History of the Reign

CH. XVI. to land at another place, where coaches were lying to carry
them to the Hague. So they missed the storm, that broke
out fatally at the Hague the next day, where men's minds
were in great agitation.

De Witt was once at night going home from the States,
when four persons set on him to murder him. He shewed
on that occasion both an intrepid courage, and a great
presence of mind. He was wounded in several places, yet
he got out of their hands, and one of them was taken, and
condemned for it. All De Witt's friends pressed him to
save his life ; but he thought that such an attempt on a man
in his post was a crime not to be pardoned, though as to
his own part in the matter he very freely forgave it. The
young man confessed his crime, and repented of it : and
protested he was led to it by no other consideration, but
that of zeal for his country and religion, which he thought
were betrayed ; and he died as in a rapture of devotion,
which made great impression on the spectators. At the
same time a barber accused De Witt's elder brother of
practising on him, in order to his murdering the prince.
There were so many improbabilities in his story, which was
supported by no circumstances, that it seemed no way
credible. Yet Cornelius de Witt was put to torture on it,
but stood firm to his innocence. The sentence was accommo-
dated rather to the state of affairs, than to the strict rules
326 of justice a. In the mean while, his brother had resigned his
charge of pensionary, and was made one of the judges of
the high court. Cornelius de Witt was banished ; which
was intended rather as a s'ending him out of the way, than
as a sentence against him. I love not to describe scenes

Aug. 20, so full of horror as was that black and infamous one com-
mitted on the two brothers 1. I can add little to what has

a for he was banished struck out.

1 Upon the state of Holland after to call government, every man being

the murder, Henry Coventry writes affrayed to carry the name of a magis-

thus to Essex, Aug. 29, 1672 : trate, much lesse to execute the duty

'Where since the tragedy of the or the authority of one.'
De Witts there is hardly left what

of King Charles II. 583

been so often printed. De Witt's going in his own coach CH. XVI.
to carry his brother out of town was a great error, and
looked like a triumph over a sentence ; which was un-
becoming the character of a judge. Some furious agitators,
who pretended zeal for the prince, gathered the rabble
together. And by that vile action that followed they did
him more hurt, than they were ever able to repair. His
enemies have taken advantages from thence to cast the
infamy of this on him, and on his party, to make them all
odious ; though the prince spoke of it always to me with
the greatest horror possible1. The ministers in Holland
did upon this occasion shew a very particular violence in
their sermons and in some printed treatises ; they charged
the judges with corruption, that had carried the sentence no
further than to banishment, and compared the fate of the
De Witts to Haman's.

| I need not relate the great change of the magistracy MS. 164.
in all the provinces, nor the repealing the perpetual edict,
and the advancing the prince of Orange to be stadtholder,
after they had voided the obligation of the oath he had
taken, about which he took some time to deliberate. Both
lawyers and divines agreed, that those to whom he had
made that oath had the power of relaxing the obligation of
it, and that therefore he was no longer bound by ita. They
also gave him for that time the full power of peace and
war. All this was carried farther by the town of Amster-
dam ; for they sent a deputation to him, offering him the
sovereignty of their town. When he was pleased to tell
me this passage, he said he knew the reason for which they
made it was, because they thought all was lost, and they
chose to have the infamy of their loss fall on him, rather
than on themselves. He added that he was sure the
country could not bear a sovereign, and that they would

"• They were not contented to lodge that dignity in his own person, but made
it hereditary to his issue male, struck out.

1 See supra 574, note.

584 The History of the Reign

CH. XVI. contribute more liberally to the war when it was in order
to the preserving their own liberty, than for any prince
whatsoever. So he told them, that, without taking any
time to consult on the answer to be made to so great an
offer, he did immediately refuse it. He was fully satisfied
with the power that he had already lodged with him, and
would never endeavour to carry it any further. The prince's
advancement gave a new life to the whole country. He,
though then so very young, and little acquainted either
327 with the affairs of state or war, did apply himself so to both,
that, notwithstanding the desperate state in which he found
matters, he neither lost heart nor committed errors. The
duke of Buckingham and the lord Arlington tried to bring
the king of France to offer them better terms ; but in vain.
That king was so lifted up, that he seemed to consider the
king very little. While he was so high on the one hand,
and the prince of Orange so steady on the other, the
English ambassadors soon saw that all the offices they
could do were ineffectual. One day the prince (who told
me this himself) was arguing with them upon the king's
conduct, as the most unaccountable thing possible, who was
contributing so much to the exaltation of France, that
must prove in conclusion fatal to himself ; and was urging
this in several particulars. The duke of Buckingham broke
out in an oath, which was his usual style, and said he was
in the right ; and so offered to sign a peace immediately
with the prince. Lord Arlington seemed amazed at his
rashness. Yet he persisted in it, and said positively he
would do it. The prince upon that, not knowing what
secret powers he might have, ordered the articles to be
engrossed, and he believed that if he could possibly have
got them ready while he was with him, that he would have
signed them. They were ready by next morning, but by
that time he had changed his mind. That duke, at parting,
pressed him much to put himself wholly in the king's
hands : and assured him he would take care of his affairs as
of his own. The prince cut him short: he said his country

of King Charles II. 585

had trusted him, and he would never deceive nor betray CH. XVI,
them for any base ends of his own. The duke answered,
he was not to think any more of his country, for it was
lost : if it should weather out the summer, by reason of the
waters that had drowned a great part of it, the winter's
frost would lay them open : and he repeated the words
often, 'Do not you see it is lost?' The prince's answer
deserves to be remembered : he said he saw it was indeed ,
in great danger, but there [was] a sure way never to see it
lost, and that was to die in the last ditch.

The person that the prince relied on chiefly as to the
affairs of Holland was Fagel 1 : a man very learned in the
law, who had a quick apprehension, and a clear and ready
judgment. He had a copious eloquence, more popular
than correct : and was fit to carry matters with a torrent
in a popular assembly. De Witt had made great use of
him : for he joined with him very zealously in the carrying
the perpetual edict, which he negotiated with the states
of Friesland, who opposed it most : and he was made
greffier, or secretary to the states general, which is the
most beneficial place in Holland. He was a pious and 328
virtuous man : only he was too eager and violent, and out
of measure partial to his kindred. He was vain, and too
apt to flatter himself, and not ill pleased when others
flattered him. He had much heart when matters went
well, but had not the courage that became a great minister
on uneasy and difficult occasions. Prince Waldeck was
their chief general : a man of a great compass and a true
judgment, equally able in the cabinet and in the camp2.

1 Gaspard Fagel (1629-1688) ; Waldeck (1620—1692) ; entered the
succeeded De Witt as Grand Pen- service of the State of Holland, and
sioner(w/ra, f. 731), and co-operated subsequently that of the Emperor
with Temple in forming the Peace of Leopold I, by whom he was made
Nimwegen in 1678. He drew the Field Marshal and Prince in 1682.
draft of William Ill's Declaration He served under Sobieski in the
before the invasion of England. Cf. great victory of Vienna over the
Macaulay, Hist, of Engl. ii. 81, 255. Turks in 1683, and then returned to

2 George Frederick, Prince of the Dutch service, when he was

586 The History of the Reign

CH. XVI. But he was always unsuccessful, because he was never
furnished according to the schemes that he laid down.
The opinion that armies had of him as an unfortunate
general made him really so : for soldiers cannot have much
heart when they have not an entire confidence in him that
has the chief command.

Dyckveldt1, on his return from [England a], seeing the
ruin of the De Witts, with whom he was formerly united,
and the progress the French had made in Utrecht, where
his estate and interest lay, despaired too soon, and went
and lived under them. Yet he did great service to his
province : upon every violation of articles, he went and
demanded justice and made protestations, with a boldness
to which the French were so little accustomed that they
were amazed at it. Upon the French leaving Utrecht, and
on the re-establishing that province, he was left out of the
government : yet his great abilities, and the insinuating
smoothness of his temper, procured him so many friends,

MS. 165. that the prince was prevailed on to receive him into his
confidence : and he had a great share of it to the last, as
he well deserved it. He had a very perfect knowledge of
all the affairs of Europe, and great practice in many
embassies. He spoke as almost all the Dutch do, too
long, and with too much vehemence. He was in his
private deportment a virtuous and religious man, and a
zealous protestant. In the administration of his province,
which was chiefly trusted to him, there were great com-
plaints of partiality and injustice.

Halewyn 2, a man of great interest in the town of Dort,
and one of the judges in the court of Holland, was the
person of them all whom I knew best and valued most,
and was next to Fagel in the prince's confidence. He had
a great compass of learning, besides his own profession, in

a Holland, by mistake.

made Marshal General. In 1690 x See supra 580.

he suffered defeat at Fleurus at the 2 Corneille Terestein d' Halewyn.

hands of Marshal Luxembourg. See supra 83, 566, 580.

of King Charles II. 587

which he was very eminent. He had studied divinity with CH. XVI.
great exactness, and was well read in all history, but most
particularly in the Greek and Roman authors. He was
a man of great vivacity : he apprehended things soon, and
judged very correctly. He spoke short, but with great
life. He had a courage and vigour in his counsels, that
became one who had formed himself upon the best models 329
in the ancient authors. He was a man of severe morals ;
and as he had great credit in the court where he sat, so
he took care that the partialities of friendship should not
mix in the administration of justice. He had in him all
the best notions of a good patriot and a true Christian
philosopher. He was brought in very early to the secret
of affairs, and went into the business of the perpetual edict
very zealously ; yet he quickly saw the error of bringing
matters of state immediately into numerous assemblies.
He considered the States maintaining in themselves the
sovereign power, as the basis upon which the liberty of
their country was built ; but he thought the administration
of the government must be lodged in a council. He
thought it a great misfortune that the prince was so young
at his first exaltation, and so possessed with military
matters, to which the extremity of their affairs required
that he should be entirely applied, that he did not then
correct that error, which could only be done upon so
extraordinary a conjuncture. He saw the great error of
De Witt's ministry, of keeping the secret of affairs so
much in his own hands. Such a precedent was very
dangerous to public liberty, when it was in the power of
one man to have given up his country. Their people
could not well bear the lodging so great a trust with one
who had no distinction of birth or rank; yet he saw it
was necessary to have such an authority, as De Witt's
merits and success had procured him, lodged some where.
The factions and animosities that were in almost all their
towns made it as necessary for their good government at
home, as it was for the command of their armies abroad,

588 The History of the Reign

CH. XVI. to have this power trusted to a person of that eminence
of birth and rank, that he might be above the envy that
is always among equals, when any one of them is raised
to a disproportioned degree of greatness above the rest.
He observed some errors that were in the prince's conduct :
but aftei" all, he said, it was visible that he was always in
the true interest of his country : so that the keeping up
a faction against him was like to prove fatal to all Europe
as well as to themselves.

The greatest misfortune in the prince's affairs was, that
the wisest and the most considerable men in their towns,
that had been acquainted with the conduct of affairs for-
merly, were now under a cloud, and were turned out of
the magistracy, or they thought it convenient to retire
from business, and many hot but poor men, who had
signalized their zeal on the turn newly made, came to be
called the prince's friends, and to be put every where in
the magistracy. They quickly lost all credit, having little
discretion and no authority. They were very partial in
330 the government, and oppressive, chiefly of those of the
other side. The prince saw this sooner than he could find
a remedy for it, but by degrees the men of the other side
came into his interests, and promised to serve him faith-
fully, in order to the driving out the French and the
saving their country. He received them all, and 'brought
them in as fast as could be into the magistracy, which
made those that called themselves his party complain
much, yet it gave a general content to the country. The
chief of those were, Halewyn of Dort, Pats of Rotterdam,
and Van Beuning of Amsterdam.

The last of these was so well known both in France
and England, and had so great credit in his own town,
that he deserves to be more particularly set out. He was
a man of great notions, but talked perpetually, so that it
was not possible to convince him, in discourse at least ;
for he heard nobody speak but himself. He had a won-
derful vivacity, but too much levity in his thoughts. His

of King Charles II. 589

temper was inconstant, firm and positive for a while, but CH. XVI.
apt to change, from a giddiness of mind rather than from
any falsehood in his nature. He broke twice with the
prince, after he came into a confidence with him. He
employed me to reconcile him to him for the third time :
but the prince said he could not trust him any more.
He had great knowledge in all sciences, and had such
a copiousness of invention, with such a pleasantness as
well as a variety of conversation, that I have often com-
pared him to the duke of Buckingham : only he was
virtuous and devout ; much in | the enthusiastical way. MS. 166.
In the end of his days he set himself wholly to mind the
East India trade ; but that was an employment not so
well suited to his natural genius ; and it ended fatally : for,
the actions sinking of the sudden on the breaking out of
the new war, that sunk him into a melancholy that quite
distracted him. The town of Amsterdam was for many
years conducted by him as by a dictator, and that had
exposed them to as many errors as the irregularity of his
notions suggested. The breaking the West India company,
and the loss of Munster in the year 1658, was owing to
that. It was then demonstrated that the loss of that
town laid the States open on that side, and that Munster
being in their hands would not only cover them, but be
a fit place for making levies in Westphalia. Yet Amsterdam
would not consent to that new charge, and fancied there
was no danger of that side. But they found afterwards,
to their cost, that their unreasonable managery in that
particular drew upon them an expense of many millions,
by reason of the unquiet temper of that martial bishop,
who had almost ruined them this year on the side of
Friesland : but his miscarriage in the siege of Groningen,
and the taking Coevorden by surprise in the end of the
year, as it was among the first things that raised the
spirits of the Dutch, so both his strength and reputation 331
sunk so entirely upon it, that he never gave them any
great trouble after that.

590 The History of the Reign

CH. XVI. Another error, into which the managery of Amsterdam
threw the States, was occasioned by the offer that Mons.
d'Estrades, the French ambassador, made them in the
year 1663, of a division of the Spanish Netherlands1, by
which Ostend and a line from thence to Maestricht, within
which Bruges, Ghent, and Antwerp were comprehended,
was offered to them, the French desiring only St. Omer.
Valenciennes, Cambrai, and Luxembourg. And the do-
minions that lay between those lines was to be a free
commonwealth ; a as Halewyn assured me, who said he was
in the secret at that timea. This was much debated all
Holland over. It was visible that this new commonwealth,
taken out of the hands of the Spaniards, must naturally
have fallen into a dependence on the States, and have
become more considerable when put under a better con-
duct. Yet this would have put the States at that time
to some considerable charge ; and to avoid that, the propo-
sition was rejected, chiefly by the opposition that Amster-
dam made to it, where the prevailing maxim was, to reduce
their expense, to abate taxes, and to pay their public
debts 2. By such an unseasonable parsimony matters were
now brought to that state, that they were engaged into
a war of so vast an expense, that the yearly produce of
their whole estates did not answer all the taxes that they
were forced to lay on their people.

a Not in MS.

' * This proposal was much older. dam, was an apprehension that
It was put forward at the Treaty of Antwerp, under a commonwealth,
Munster in 1648 ; but seems to have would soon recover her lost trade
been suggested by Richelieu, if [lost at the Treaty of Munster, 1648 ;
not by the Dutch, at even an by which the navigation of the
earlier date. The two other French Scheldt was closed at the demand
plans for dealing with the Spanish of the Dutch] ; being much better
Netherlands were to erect them into situated for that purpose than they
a separate republic and to conquer are, which in all likelihood would
them. Mignet, Negotiations, &c., have drawn it back again to Ant-
Introduction. See also supra 83. werp ; from whence they had it,
2 The true reason of the oppo- upon the troubles in the Spanish
sition made by the town of Amster- Netherlands. D.

of King Charles II. 591

After the prince saw that the French demands were at CH. xvi.
this time so high, and that it was not possible to draw
England into a separate treaty, he got them to call an
extraordinary assembly of the States, the most numerous
that has been in this age. To them the prince spake near
three hours, to the amazement of all that heard him, which
was owned to me by one of the deputies of Amsterdam.
He had got great materials put in his hands, of which he
made very good use. He first went through the French
propositions, and shewed the consequence and the effects
that would certainly follow on them ; that the accepting
them was ruin, and the very treating about them would
distract and dispirit their people : he therefore concluded
that the entertaining a thought of these was the giving up
their country. If any could hearken to such a motion,
the lovers of religion and liberty must go to the Indies, or
to any other country where they might be free and safe.
After he had gone through this for near an hour, he in
the next place shewed the possibility of making a stand,
notwithstanding the desperate state to which their affairs
seemed to be reduced. He shewed the force of all their
allies ; that England could not hold out long without 332
a parliament, and they were well assured that a parliament
would draw the king to other measures. He shewed the
impossibility of the French holding out long, and that the
Germans coming down to the Low Rhine must make them
go out of their country as fast as they came into it. In
all this he shewed that he had a great insight into the
French affairs. He came last to shew how it was possible
to raise the taxes that must be laid on the country to
answer such a vast and unavoidable expense ; and set
before them a great variety of projects for raising money.
He concluded, that if they laid down this for a foundation,
that religion and liberty could not be purchased at too dear
a rate, and that therefore every man among them, and every
minister in the country, ought to infuse it into all the
people, that they must submit to the present extremity,

592 The History of the Reign

CH. XVI. and to very extraordinary taxes, by this means, as their
people would again take heart, so their enemies would
lose theirs, who built their chief hopes on that universal
dejection among them, that was but too visible to all the
world. Every one that was present seemed amazed to

MS. 167. hear so young a man speak to so many things, with | so
much knowledge and so true a judgment. It raised his
character wonderfully, and contributed not a little to put
new life in a country, almost dead with fear, and dispirited
with so many losses. They all resolved to maintain their
liberty to the last, and if things should run to extremities,
to carry what wealth they could with them to the East
Indies. The state of the shipping capable of so long
a voyage was examined : and it was reckoned that they
could transport above two hundred thousand people thither.
Yet all their courage would probably have served them in
little stead, if the king of France could have been prevailed
on to stay longer at Utrecht : but he made haste to go
back to Paris. Some said it was the effect of his amours,
and that it was hastened by some quarrels among his
mistresses. Others thought he was hasting to receive the
flatteries that were preparing for him there ; and indeed
in the outward appearances of things there was great occa-
sion for them ; since he had~ such a run of success as was
beyond all expectation, though he himself had no share in
it, unless it was to spoil it by an indecent care of himself,
and a want of heart to push forward that rapidity of
success. He left a garrison in every place, against Turenne's
advice, who was for dismantling them all, and keeping his
army still about him ; but his ministers saw so far into his
temper, that they resolved to play a sure game, and to put
nothing to hazard. Upon the elector of Brandenburg's
333 coming down, Mons. Turenne was sent against him : by
which means the army about the king was so diminished,
that he could undertake no great design with so small
a force, and though the prince of Orange had not above
eight thousand men about him, employed in keeping a pass

of King Charles II. 593

near Woerden, yet no attempt was made to force him from CH. xvi.
it. Another probable reason of his returning back so soon
was a suggestion of the desperate temper of the Dutch, and
that they were capable of undertaking any design, how
black soever, rather than perish. Some told him of vaults
under the streets of Utrecht, where gunpowder might be
laid to blow him up, as he went over them : and all these
were observed to be avoided by him. He would never
lodge within the town, and came but seldom to it. He
upon one or other of these motives went back ; upon which
the prince of Conde said, he saw he had not the soul of
a conqueror in him, and that his ministers were the best
commis, but the poorest ministers in the world, who had
not souls made for great things, or capable of them.

If the king had a mind to be flattered by his people, he Aug. i,
found at his return enough even to surfeit him. Speeches, l672'
verses, inscriptions, triumphal arches, and medals, were
prepared with a profusion and excess of flattery, beyond
what had been offered to the worst of the Roman emperors,
bating the ceremony of adoration *. But blasphemous im-
pieties were not wanting, to raise and feed his vanity.
A solemn debate was held all about Paris, what title should
be given him. Le Grand was thought too common : some
were for Invincible, others for Le Conquer ant \ some, in
imitation of Charlemagne, for Louis le magne, others were
for Maximns-. but Tres Grand sounded not so well, no
more did Maxime. So they settled on Le Grand-, and all
the bodies of Paris seemed to vie in flattery. It appeared,
that the king took pleasure in it : so there has followed
upon it the greatest run of the most fulsome flattery that
is in history. Had the king of France left such a man as
Turenne at Utrecht, it might have had ill effects on the
resolutions taken up by the Dutch : but he left Luxem-
bourg there, a cruel, impious, and brutal man, that had no
regard to articles, but made all people see what was to be
expected when they came under the tyranny of such a yoke,

1 Pontalis, Jean de Witt, ii. 443.
VOL. I. Q q

594 The History of the Reign

CH. XVI. that was then so intolerable a burden, even while it ought
to have been recommended to those who were yet free by
a gentle administration. This contributed not a little to
fix the Dutch in those generous resolutions they had
taken up.

334 There was one very extraordinary thing that happened
near the Hague and in sight this summer : I had it from
many eyewitnesses, and no doubt was made of the truth
of it by any at the Hague. Soon after the English fleet
had refitted themselves, (for they had generally been much
June 7. damaged by the engagement in Solbay), it appeared in
sight of Scheveling, making up to the shore. The tide
turned : but they reckoned that with the next flood they
would certainly land the forces that were aboard, where
they were like to meet with no resistance. So they sent
to the prince for some regiments to hinder the descent.
He could not spare many men, having the French very
near him : so, between the two, the country was given for
lost, unless De Ruyter should quickly come up, The flood

MS. 168. returned, which they thought | was to end in their ruin.

July 14, But to all their amazement, after it had flowed two or
three hours, an ebb of many hours succeeded, which carried
the fleet again out to the sea ; and before that was spent
De Ruyter came in view. This they reckoned a miracle
wrought for their preservation 1. Soon after that they
escaped another design, that otherwise would very probably
have been fatal to them.

The earl of Ossory, eldest son to the duke of Ormond,
a man of great honour, generosity, and courage, had been
oft in Holland, and, coming by Helvoetsluys, he observed
it was a place of great consequence, but very ill looked to,
the Dutch trusting to the danger of entering into it, more
than to any strength that defended it. so he thought
it might be easy to seize and fortify that place. The
king approved this. So some ships were sheathed and

1 Pontalis, Jean de Witt, ii. 447 : But see Mignet, Negotiations, &c., iv.
he speaks only of a violent storm. 54; Basnage, Annales, ii. 262.

of King Charles II. 595

victualled as for a voyage to a greater distance. He was CH. XVI,
to have five men of war, and transport ships for twelve or
fifteen hundred men ; and a second squadron, with a further
supply, if he succeeded in the attempt, was to follow. He
had got two or three of their pilots brought out on a pre-
tended errand, and these he kept very safe to carry him in.
This was communicated to none but to the duke and to
lord Arlington : and all was ready for the execution. Lord
Ossory went to this fleet, and saw every thing ready as
was ordered, and came up to receive the king's sailing
orders. But the king, who had ordered him to come next
morning for his despatch, discovered the design to the duke
of Buckingham, who hated both the duke of Ormond and
lord Ossory, and would have seen the king and all his
affairs perish, rather than that persons whom he hated
should have the honour of such a piece of merit. He upon
that did turn all his wit to make the thing appear ridicu-
lous and impracticable. He represented it as unsafe on 335
many accounts, and as a desperate stroke that put things,
if it succeeded, out of a possibility of treaty or reconcilia-
tion. The king could not withstand this. Lord Ossory
found next morning that the king had changed his mind ;
and it broke out, by the duke of Buckingham's loose way
of talking, that it was done by his means. $o the design
was laid aside ; but when the peace was made, lord Ossory
told it to the Dutch ambassadors, and said since he did not
destroy them by touching them in that weak and sore part,
he had no mind they should lie any longer open to such
another attack. When the ambassadors wrote this over
to their masters, all were sensible how easy it had been to
have carried and secured that place, and what a terrible
disorder it would have put them in ; and upon this they
gave order to put the place in a better posture of defence
for the future. So powerfully did spite work on those
about the king, and so easy was he to the man of wit and
humour. The duke stayed long at sea, in hope to have
got the East India fleet ; but they came home sailing so

Qq 2

596 The History of the Reign

CH. XVI. near the German coast, that they had passed him before
he was aware of it. So he came back after a long and an
inglorious campaign. He lost the honour of the action
that was at Solbay, and missed the wealth of that fleet
which he had long waited for.

I will complete the transactions of this memorable year
with an account of the impression that Luxembourg made
on the Dutch near the end of it ; which would have had
a very tragical conclusion, if a happy turn of weather had
not saved them. Stoupe was then with him, and was on
the secret. By many feints they amused the Dutch so
skilfully that there was no suspicion of the true design.
All was prepared for an invasion when a frost should come.
It came at last : and it both froze and thawed by turns
for some time, which they reckon makes the ice firmest.
At last a frost continued so strong for some days, that
upon piercing and examining the ice, it was thought that
it could not be dissolved by an ordinary thaw in less than

Dec. 26, two days. So about midnight he marched out of Utrecht
towards Leyden, with about sixteen thousand men. Those
of Utrecht told me that in the minute in which they began
to march, a thaw wind blew very fresh ; yet they marched
on till day- light, and came to Swammerdam and Bode-
grave, which they gained not without difficulty, where they
stopt, and committed many outrages of crying lust and
barbarous cruelty, and vented their impiety in very blas-
phemous expressions, upon the continuance of the thaw,
336 which now had quite melted the ice, so that it was not
possible to go back the way that they came, where all was
ice, but was now being dissolved about three foot of water.
There were some causeways made, and they were forced
to march on these. But there was a fort, through which
they must pass, and one Painevine, with two regiments,
was ordered to keep it, with some cannon in it. If he had
continued there, they must all have been taken prisoners,
which would have put an end to the war. But when he
saw them march by him in the morning, he gave all for

of King Charles II. 597

lost, and went to Ter Gouw, where he gave the alarm, as if CH. XVI.

all was lost. And he offered to them, to come to help

them by that a small a garrison to a better capitulation. So

he left his post, and went thither. The French army, not

being stopt by that fort, got safe home T. But their beha- Dec. 31.

viour in those two villages was such, that, as great pains

was taken to spread it over | the whole country, so it MS. 169.

contributed not a little to the establishing them in their

resolutions of not only venturing but of losing all, rather

than come under so cruel a yoke. Painevine's withdrawing

had lost them an advantage never to be regained. So the

prince ordered a council of war to try him. He pleaded

that the place was not tenable ; that the enemy had passed

it ; so he thought the use it was intended for was lost :

and if the enemy had come to attack him, he must have

rendered upon discretion : and he pleaded further, that he

went upon the desire of one of their towns to save it. Upon

this defence he was acquitted as to his life, but condemned

to infamy as a coward, and to have his sword broke over

his head, and to be for ever banished the States' dominions.

But an appeal lay, according to their discipline, to a council

of war composed of general officers : and they confirmed

the sentence. The towns of Holland were highly offended

at these proceedings. They said, they saw the officers

were resolved to be gentle to one another, and to save

their fellow officers, how guilty soever they might be. The

prince yielded to their instances, and brought him to a third

trial before himself and a court of the supreme officers, in

which they had the assistance of six judges. Painevine

stood on it, that he had undergone two trials, which was

all that the martial law subjected him to ; and in those he

was acquitted. Yet this was overruled. It was urged

against him that he himself was present in the council of

war that ordered the making that fort ; and he knew that

* small, word rather doubtful.

1 Mignet, Negotiations, &c., iv. 128 ; Basnage, Annales, ii. 355. Luxembourg
had only 5,000 men.

598

The History of the Reign

CH. XVI. it was not intended to be a place tenable against an an

but it was only meant to make a little stand for some time,
and was intended for a desperate service in a desperate
337 state of affairs ; and that therefore he ought not to have
left his post because of the danger he was in. He saw the
thaw begin, and so ought to have stayed at least till he
had seen how far that would go : and being put there by
the prince, he was to receive orders from none but him.
Upon these grounds he was condemned and executed, to
the great satisfaction of the States, but to the general
disgust of all the officers, who thought they were safe in
the hands of an ordinary council of war, but did not like
this new method of proceeding.

They were also not a little troubled at the strict dis-
cipline that the prince settled, and at the severe execution
of it. But by this means he wrought up his army to
a pitch of obedience and courage, of sobriety and good
order, that things put on another face : and all men began
to hope that their armies would act with another spirit,
now that the discipline was so carefully looked to. a It
seems the French made no great account of them : for
they released twenty-five thousand prisoners, taken in
several places, for fifty thousand crowns a.

Thus I have gone far into the state of affairs of Holland
in this memorable year. I had most of these particulars
from Dyckvelt and Halewyn, and I thought this great
turn deserved to be set out with all the copiousness with
which my informations could furnish me. This year the
king declared a new mistress, and made her duchess of
Portsmouth l. She had been maid of honour to Madame,

a This sentence is not in the MS.

1 See Forneron's charming mono-
graph upon Louise de Keroualle.
He speaks of the ' anarchy ' among
the women which preceded the
' reign ' of Louise. She showed an
embarrassing hesitation in accepting
the role assigned her, and was at

length told by Louis that the alterna-
tive was retirement in a religious
house in France. The story of her
surrender at Euston is well known ;
on Nov. i, 1671, she received the
formal congratulations of Colbert
upon her appointment. There is

of King Charles II. 599

and had come over with her to Dover ; where the king had CH. XVI.
expressed such a regard to her, that the duke of Bucking-
ham, who hated the duchess of Cleveland, intended to put
her on the king. He told him that it was a decent piece
of tenderness for his sister to take care of some of her
servants. So she was the person the king easily consented
to invite over. That duke assured the king of France,
that he could not reckon himself sure of the king but by
giving him a mistress that should be true to his interests.
It was soon agreed to. So the duke of Buckingham sent
her with a part of his equipage to Dieppe, and said he
would presently follow. But he, who was the most incon-
stant and forgetful of all men, never thought of her more,
but went to England by the way of Calais. So Montague,
then ambassador at Paris1, hearing of this, sent over for
a y aught for her, and sent some of his servants to wait on
her, and to defray her charge till she was brought to White-
hall : and then lord Arlington took care of her. So the
duke of Buckingham lost the merit he might have pre-
tended to, and brought over a mistress whom his own
strange conduct threw into the hands of his enemies. The 338
king was presently taken with her. She studied to please
and observe him in every thing: so that he passed away
the rest of his life in a great fondness for her. He kept
her at a vast charge 2 ; and she by many fits of sickness,

good reason to believe that she hoped it was the triumph of refinement and

to become formally what for many skill.

years she was virtually, Queen of ' Montague told Sir William

England. Colbert to Louvois, Dec. Temple, he designed to go ambas-

24, 1671. It is stated in the scurri- sador to France. Sir William asked

lous and untrustworthy Secret His- how that could be ; for he knew the

tory of Charles II, 23, that Charles king did not love him, and the duke

married her with the ceremonies of hated him. 'That's true/ said he,

the Church ; and a mock marriage ' but they shall do, as if they loved

at Euston is often spoken of. See me.' Which, Sir William told me,

Evelyn, Oct. 15, 1671. The account he soon brought about, as he sup-

of her courageous and finally sue- posed, by means of the ladies, who

cessful struggles to maintain herself were always his best friends, for

against the Duchess of Cleveland, some secret perfections, that were

Nelly Gwyn, and the Duchess Maza- hid from the rest of the world. D.
rin, is given in detail by Forneron ; 2 She received at first £12,000

6oo The History of the Reign

CH. XVI. some believed real, and others thought only pretended,
gained of him every thing she desired1. She stuck firm
to the French interest, and was its chief support. The
king divided himself between her and Mistress Gwyn : and

MS. 170. had no other avowed amour2. | But he was so entirely
possessed by the duchess of Portsmouth, and so engaged
by her into the French interest, that this threw him into
great difficulties, and exposed him both to much contempt
and distrust.

CHAPTER XVII.

SCOTLAND IN 1672.

I DO now return to the affairs of Scotland, to give an
account of a session of parliament, and the other transac-
tions there in this critical year. About the end of May
1672. duke Lauderdale came down with his lady in great pomp.
He was much lifted up with the French success, and took
such pleasure to talk of De Witt's fate, that it could not
be heard without horror. He treated all people with such
scorn, that few were able to bear it 3. He adjourned the

a year, shortly raised to £40,000. women, though vast, were corn-
In 1681 no less than £136,000 passed paratively meagre. In 1674 we find
through her hands ; and Danby was £4,000 a year settled upon Nell
constantly pestered by her for money. Gwyn's children; H. M. C. Rep. vi.
H. M. C. Rep. ix. 451. In March, 473. Cf. Pepys, Feb. 23, i66f and
1674, she gave her support to Danby passim.

on condition that he found funds for x Lord Sunderland once stopt her

a l Necklesse of Pearle, ,£8,000 going to the Bath, by asking of her,

price, of a merchant, and a payre of if she would be so silly as to show

diamond pendants, 3,000 guynyes, the king that he could live without

of elder Lady Northumberland, nei- her. D.

ther of whom will part with them 2 Upon the later rivalry between

without ready money.' Essex Papers, the Duchess of Portsmouth, Nell

i. 199, Conway to Essex, March 31, Gwyn, and the Duchess of Mazarin,

1674. In September, 1676, an advance see Forneron, Louise de Keroualle,

on the Customs was secured by ch. vii.

Charles, 'for Lady Portsmouth hath 3 On Nov. 24, 1671, he was made

a new £30,000 debt must be paid at President for life of the Secret Coun-

once.' Rutland MSS., Sept. 10. cil for Scotland. Cal. St. P. Dom.

The sums spent upon the other 1671, 583.

of King Charles II. 601

parliament for a fortnight, that he might carry his lady CH. XVII.
round the country, and was every where waited on and
entertained with as much respect, and at as great a charge,
as if the king had been there in person. This enraged
the nobility, and they made great applications to duke
Hamilton, to lead a party against him, and to oppose the
tax that he demanded of a whole year's assessment *.
I soon grew so weary of the court, though there was scarce
a person so well used by him as I my self was, that I went
out of town ; but duke Hamilton sent for me, and told me
how vehemently he was solicited by the majority of the
nobility to oppose the demand of the tax. He had pro-
mised to me not to oppose all taxes in general : and I had
assured duke Lauderdale of it. But he said this demand
was so extravagant, that he did not imagine it would go
so far: so he did not think himself bound by a promise in
general words to agree to such a high one. Upon this
I spoke to duke Lauderdale, to shew him the inclinations
many had to an opposition to that demand, and the danger
of it. He rejected it in a brutal manner, saying they durst
as soon be damned as oppose him. Yet I made him so
sensible of it, that he appointed the marquis of Athol to
go and talk in his name to duke Hamilton, who moved
that I might be present ; and that was easily admitted.
Lord Athol pressed duke Hamilton to come into an entire
confidence with duke Lauderdale, and promised that he
should have the chief direction of affairs in Scotland under
the other. Duke Hamilton asked how stood the parlia- 339
ment of England affected to the war. Lord Athol assured
him there was a settled design of having no more parlia-
ments in England. The king would be master, and would
be no longer curbed by a house of commons. He also
laid out the great advantages that Scotland, more par-
ticularly the great nobility, might find in striking in heartily
with the king's designs, and in making him absolute in

1 For this, the first constitutional described by himself, see Lauderdale
opposition to Lauderdale, graphically Papers^ ii, iii, and Preface to iii.

602

The History of the Reign

CH. XVII. England. Duke Hamilton answered very honestly, that he
would never engage in such designs : he would be always
a good and faithful subject, but he would be likewise a good
country man. He was very unwilling to concur in the land
tax. He said Scotland had no reason to engage in the war,
since as they might suffer by it, so they could gain nothing,
neither by the present war, nor by any peace that should be
made. Yet he was prevailed on, in conclusion, to agree
to it ; and upon that all the business of the session of
parliament went on smoothly, without any opposition.

The duchess of Lauderdale l, not contented with the
great appointments they had, set herself by all possible
methods to raise money. They lived at a vast expense :
and every thing was set to sale 2. She carried all things

1 For the verses in her praise,
ascribed to Burnet, see Defence of
Dr. Cockburn against the Calumnies
and Aspersions of a Libel entituVd
' A Vindication of the late Bishop
Burnet'' (London, n.d.\ 90-92;
Maidment's Catalogue of Scottish
Writers, 56, and Scottish Pasquils,
237. In the first-named work, it is
stated that they ' were transcribed
from a copy attested to be a true
copy under the hand and seal of
a great man, who declares that he
had copied them, together with the
solution of two important cases, from
the originals written with Dr. Bur-
net's own hand, in the custody of
Duke Lauderdale.' The ' great man '
was clearly Paterson, afterwards
Archbishop of Glasgow (supra 471,
note). All search for the original
has been vain; and Maidment does
not state upon what evidence he
gives the date 1677 for the presenta-
tion of the verses ; it is, however,
obviously wrong, since the total
breach between Lauderdale and
Burnet had occurred two years be-
fore. If Burnet wrote this atrocious
nonsense, it must have been at an

earlier date.

2 In a letter of the Duke of York's,
from Scotland, he says, ' I hear
Duchess Lauderdale is very angry
with me, for the removes which
have been made in the sessions ;
I do not wonder at it, for some of
them were her creatures, and she
received the last register's pension,
and some say, went a share in the
perquisites of his place. That which
vexes her is, that she sees she can
no more squeeze this country, as
she has done for several years past,
and got very considerable sums of
money for this country.' D. The
letters from the Duke of York (to
which Lord Dartmouth so frequently
refers) were written by him to
George Lord Dartmouth, father to
the author of these notes, and are
at present in the collection of the
Earl of Dartmouth, at Sandwell.
H. L. (Henry Legge.) They are
printed in H. M. C. Report, xi. pt. 5.
The rapacity of the duchess is simply
expressed by Courtin to Pomponne,
Dec. 28, 1676, ' Elle a envie de tout
ce qu'elle voit.' Forneron, Louise de
KeroualJe, 136.

of King Charles II. 603

with a haughtiness that could not have been easily borne CH. xvii.
from a queen. She talked of all people with an ungoverned
freedom, and grew to be universally hated. I was out of
measure weary of my attendance at their court, but was
pressed to continue it. Many found I did good offices.
I got some to be considered and advanced, that had no
other way of access. But that which made it more neces-
sary was, that I saw Sharp and his creatures were making
their court with the most abject flattery, and all the sub-
missions possible. Leighton went seldom to them, though
he was always treated by them with great distinction. So
it was necessary for me to be about them, and keep them
right : otherwise all our designs were lost without recovery.
This led me to much uneasy compliance, though I asserted
my own liberty, and found so often fault with their pro-
ceedings, that once or twice I used such freedom, and it
was so ill taken, that I thought it was fit for me to retire.
Yet I was sent for, and continued in such high favour that
I was again tried if I would accept of a bishopric, and was
promised the first of the two archbishoprics that should
fall. But I was still fixed in my former resolutions not to
engage so early, being then but nine and twenty : nor
would I come into a dependance on them.

Duke Lauderdale, at his coming down, had expected
that the presbyterians should have addressed themselves
to him for a share in that liberty which their brethren had 340
now in England ; and which he had asserted in a very
particular manner at the council table in Whitehall. One
Whatley, a justice of peace in Lincolnshire, if I remember
the county right, had disturbed one of the meeting houses,
that had got a license pursuant to the declaration for
a toleration, and he had set fines on those that met in it,
conform to the act against conventicles. Upon which he
was brought up to council, to be reprimanded for this high
contempt of his majesty's declaration, | and some privy MS. 171.
counsellors shewed their zeal in severe reflections on his
proceedings. Duke Lauderdale carried the matter very

604 The History of the Reign

CH. XVII. far : he said the king's edicts were to be considered and
obeyed as laws, and more than any other laws. This was
writ down by some that heard it, who were resolved to
make use of it against him in due time. He looked on
near two months after he came down to Scotland, waiting
still for an application for liberty of conscience. But the
designs of the court were now clearly seen into. The
presbyterians understood they were only to be made use
of in order to the introducing of popery. So they resolved
to be silent and passive. Upon this he broke out in fury
and rage against them. Conventicles abounded in all
places of the country ; and some furious zealots broke into
the houses of some of the ministers, wounding them and
robbing their goods, forcing some of them to swear that
they would never officiate any more in their churches.
Some of these were taken and executed. I visited them
in prison, and saw in them the blind madness of ill-governed
zeal, of which they were never fully convinced. Some of
them seemed to be otherwise no ill men. One of them
was a bold villain : he justified all that they had done,
from the Israelites robbing the Egyptians, and destroying
the Canaan ites. That which gave duke Lauderdale a juster
ground of offence, was that one Carstares J, much employed
since that time in greater matters, was taken in a ship that
came from Rotterdam. He himself escaped out of their
hands : but his letters were taken. They had a great deal
writ in white ink, which shewed that the design of sending
him over was, to know in what disposition the people were,

1 William Carstares, afterwards mained in prison for nearly five years,
the celebrated chaplain of William In 1684 he was again imprisoned,
III, and his adviser upon the settle- and tortured, on the ground of com-
ment of religion in Scotland ; cf. plicity in Argyll's treason and the
f. 375. In March, 167^, he was ap- events for which Russell and Sidney
prehended in London on the ground suffered, but was then allowed to
of being joint author with James go abroad. His Letters were pub-
Stewart of the Account of Scotland's lished first in 1774 with a memoir
grievances by reason of the Duke of by McCormick ; and there is a Life by
Lauderdale s ministry, humbly ten- R. H. Story, published in 1874. See
dered to his sacred Majesty. He re- also the article in the Diet. Nat. Biog.

of King Charles II. 605

promising arms and other necessaries, if they were in CH. XVII.
a condition to give the government any disturbance. But
the whole was so darkly writ, much being referred to the
bearer, that it was not possible to understand what lay hid
under many mysterious expressions. Upon this a severe
prosecution of conventicles was set on foot, and a great
deal of money was raised by arbitrary fines. Lord Athol
made of this in one week iqocl. sterling. I did all I could
to moderate this fury: but all was in vain. Duke Lauder- 341
dale broke out into the most frantic fits of rage possible.
When I was once saying to him, was that a time to drive
them into a rebellion ? Yes, said he, would to God they
would rebel, that so I might bring over an army of Irish
papists to cut all their throats. Such a fury as this seemed
to furnish work for a physician, rather than for any other
sort of man. But after he had let himself loose into these
fits for near a month, he calmed all of the sudden : perhaps
upon some signification from the king ; for the party com-
plained to their friends in London, who had still some
credit at court.

He called for me all of the sudden, and put me in mind
of the project I had laid before him, of putting all the
outed ministers by couples into parishes : so that instead
of wandering about the country, to hold conventicles in all
places, they might be fixed to a certain abode, and every
one to have the half of a benefice. I was still of the same
mind, and so was Leighton ; who compared this to the
gathering the coals that were scattered over the house, set-
ting it all on fire, into the chimney, where they might burn
away safely. Duke Lauderdale set about it immediately,
and the benefit of the indulgence was extended to forty
more churches. This, if followed as to that of doubling
them in a parish, and of confining them within their
parishes, would have probably laid a flame, that was spread-
ing over the nation, and was like to prove fatal in conclu-
sion. But duke Lauderdale's way was to govern by fits, and
to pass from hot to cold ones always in extremes. So this

606 The History of the Reign

CH. XVII. of doubling them, which was the chief part of our scheme, was
quite neglected. Single ministers went into those churches,
and those who were not yet provided for went about the
country holding conventicles very boldly, without any re-
straint : and no care at all was taken of the church.

Sharp and his instruments took occasion from this to
complain that the church was ruined by Leighton's means :
and I wanted not my share in the charge. And indeed the
remissness of the government was such, that there was
just cause of complaint. Great numbers met in the fields :
men went to them with such arms as they had, and we
were blamed for all this. It was said that things went so
far beyond what a principle of moderation could suggest,
that we did certainly design to ruin and overturn the con-
stitution. Leighton upon all this concluded he could do no
good on either side : he had gained no ground on the pres-
byterians, and was suspected and hated by the episcopal
342 party. So he resolved to retire from all public employ-
ments, and to spend the rest of his days in a corner, far
from noise and business, and to give himself wholly to
prayer and meditation, since he saw he could not carry on
his great designs of healing and reforming the church, on
which he had set his heart. He had gathered together
many instances out of church history of bishops that had
left their sees, and retired from the world, and was much
pleased with these. He and I had many discourses on this
argument I thought a man ought to be determined by

MS. 172. the providence j of God, and to continue in the station he
was in, though he found he could not do all the good in it
that he had proposed to himself, he might do good in
a private way by his example and his labours, more than
he himself could know : and as a man ought to submit to
sickness, poverty, or other afflictions, when they are laid on
him by the hand of Providence, so I thought the labouring
without success was indeed a very great trial of patience,
yet the labouring in an ingrateful employment was a cross,
and so was to be borne with submission ; and that a great

of King Charles II. 607

uneasiness under that, or the forsaking a station because of CH. XVII.
it, might be the effect of secret pride, and an indignation
against Providence. He, on the other hand, said his work
seemed to be at an end : he had no more to do, unless he
had a mind to please himself with the lazy enjoying a good
revenue. So he could not be wrought on by all that could
be laid before him ; but followed duke Lauderdale to court,
and begged leave to retire from his archbishopric *. He
would by no means consent to this. So he desired that he
might be allowed to do it within a year. Duke Lauderdale
thought so much time was gained : so, to be rid of his im-
portunity, he moved the king to promise him that, if he did
not change his mind, he would within the year accept of
his resignation. He came back much pleased with what he
had obtained, and said to me upon it, there was now but
one uneasy stage between him and rest, and he would
wrestle through it the best he could.

And now I am come to the period that I set out for this
book. The world was now in a general combustion, set on
by the ambition of the court of France, and supported by
the feebleness and treachery of the court of England.
A stand was made by the prince of Orange and the elector
of Brandenburg : but the latter, not being in time assisted
by the emperor, was forced to accept of such conditions as
he could obtain. This winter there was great practice in
all the courts of Europe, by the agents of France, .to lay
them every where asleep ; and to make the world look on 343
their king's design in that campaign as a piece of glory, for
the humbling of a rich and proud commonwealth, and that
as soon as that was done, suitably to the dignity of the
Great Monarch, he would give peace to the world, after he
had shewed that nothing could stand before his arms. But
the opening the progress of these negotiations, and the turn
that the affairs of Europe took, belongs to the next period.

1 See his very touching letter in the Lauderdale Papers, iii. 75.
END OF VOL. I.

ADDENDA ET CORRIGENDA.

Page ii, line 2 from end, dele 2; the note should run on.

,, 17, note 2, last line but one, add, i But see infra 301, note.'

,, 22, n. i, line 3 from end, for fact read allegation

,, 41, 1. 2, for Primerose, read Primrose

., 44, n. i, line 4 (ix. 179), add ' ed. 1884.'

., 71, 1. 2, transfer reference mark to ' Buchanan '

,, 78, 1. 2,ybr Grimstone, read Grimston

,, 129, n. i, and elsewhere, for Thurlow or Thurlowe read Thurloe

„ 138, n. 2, after 1652 read (infra 194, note)

55 !39> n. for 1676 (or 1677 ?) read March 20, i67f

,, 157, last 1., and elsewhere, for Montague read Montagu

,, 177, 1- i, for Mountague read Montagu

,, 189,1. i, for Somelsdyck read Sommelsdyck

,j 355, !• 3» for Wariston read Warriston, and for Hamborough read
Hamburg

,, 365, 1. 7 from end, for Midletoun read Middleton

»? 383, 1. 3, and 1. 12 from end, for Leightoun read Leighton

j» 533, n- 2, for supra 533 read supra 438 and infra 550

,5 541, !• 3 from end, for Stouppe read Stoupe

,, 542, 11. 18, 20, for Soisons read Soissons

,, 548, 1. 7 from end,ybr Brandenburgh read Brandenburg

., 555, 1. 10, add following note: Pool, scil. Matthew Poole, or Pole,
1624-1679; one of the Presbyterian ministers who resigned
their livings in consequence of the Act of Uniformity. His great
work, the Synopsis Criticorum aliorumque Sacrae Scripturae Inter-
pretum (5 vols., folio), was begun on the suggestion of Lloyd,
Bishop of Worcester, in 1666, and occupied the severe and in-
cessant labour of ten years. The first volume was published in
1669, the last in 1676. He was the author of a large number
of religious and polemical works.

i ? 557, 1* ^ifor Maimburg read Maimbourg. And add following note : Louis
Maimbourg (1610-1686), a French Jesuit, who wrote a large
number of works on religious history. Writing to Dr. Morley
on June i, 1681, Evelyn says : — ' Father Maimbourg has had the
impudence to publish at the end of his late Histoire du Calvinisme
a pretended letter of the late Duchess of York,' Diary and
Correspondence, iii. (1852), 255. It will be found, translated into
French, on pp. 507-513 of the British Museum copy, derniere
edition, 1682. See infra f. 358.

The following forward references, which were necessarily made to the
folio edition, since the sheets to which they refer had not then been printed,
are now replaced as far as possible by the corresponding references to the
present edition.

Page 18, for f. 316 read infra 567. Page 139, for (f. 227), (f. 304), and
41, ., f. 298 , infra 531. (ff. 305, 389, 39°, 394) read

47, ., f. 196

63, „ f- 196

73, ., f« 234

83, ., f- 328

84, .. f. 172
106, ,, f. 244

infra 350. (infra 405), (infra 546), and

infra 350. (infra 546, and ff. 389, 390,

infra 420. 394%

infra 586. ., 175, for f. 263 read infra 474.

infra 302. ,, ,, „ f. 266 ,, infra 480.

infra 436. ,, 183, „ f. 187 ,, infra 333.

„ 107, „ ff. 214, 240, 288, 375 ,, 187, ,, ff. 239-246, read infra

read infra 383, 429, 517, and 427-441.

f. 375. ., 212, for f. 292 read infra 523.

„ 114, for ff. 187, 191, 253 read „ 239, „ f. 288 „ infra 518.

infra 332, 339, 454- >, 332> „ f. 253 » infra 454-
„ 157, for f. 323 read infra 578.

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